BREAKING | Marital Rape Exception | “Marriage Doesn’t Extinguish Autonomy, But Can Husband Be Prosecuted For Rape?” Supreme Court To Decide
The Supreme Court is considering the constitutional challenge to India’s marital rape exception, which raises two competing legal questions: marriage does not extinguish a woman’s bodily autonomy or consent, but should non-consensual sexual intercourse within marriage attract the same rape offence applicable outside marriage? The existing BNS framework retains a marital exception in Section 63 for a wife who is not under 18, while the Union has previously opposed judicial removal of the exception and argued that sexual violence within marriage can attract other legal consequences. The Supreme Court has not yet finally decided the constitutional issue.
