The Delhi High Court Wednesday delivered a split verdict on the issue of crꦿiminalisation of marital rape and granted leave to the parties to file an appeal before the Supreme Court.
While Justice Rajiv Shakdher, who headed the division bench, favoured striking down the marital rape exception, Jꩲustice C Hari Shankar said the exception under the IPC is not unconstitutional and was based on an intelligible differentia.
The petitioners had challenged the constitutionality of the marital rape exception under Section 375 IPC (rape) on the ground that it discriminate🥀d against married women who are sexual🧸ly assaulted by their husbands.
Under the excဣeption given in Section🍬 375 of the IPC, sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his wife, the wife not being minor, is not rape.
