An Indian judge has dismissed a woman’s complaint that her husband committed “unnatural sex,” because under Indian law it’s not illegal for a husband to force his wife to engage in sexual acts.
The ruling, made in the Madhya Pradesh High Court last week, shines a light on a legal loophole in India that doesn’t criminalize marital rape by a husband against his wife, if she’s over age 18.
Campaigners have been trying to change the law for years, but they say they’re up against conservatives who argue that state interference could destroy the tradition of marriage in India.
A challenge to the law has been winding its way through the country’s courtrooms, with the Delhi High Court delivering a split verdict on the issue in 2022, prompting lawyers to file an appeal in the country’s Supreme Court that is still waiting to be heard.
According to the Madhya Pradesh High Court order, the woman told police her husband came to her house in 2019, soon after they were married, and committed “unnatural sex,” under Section 377 of India’s penal code.
The offense includes non-consensual “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal,” and was historically used to prosecute same sex couples who engaged in consensual sex, before the Supreme Court decriminalized homosexuality in 2018
According to court documents, the woman alleged the act happened “on multiple occasions,” and that her husband had threatened to divorce her if she told anyone about it. She finally came forward after telling her mother, who encouraged her to file a complaint in 2022, the court heard.
The husband challenged his wife’s complaint in court, with his lawyer claiming that any “unnatural sex” between the couple was not criminal as they are married.
Delivering his judgement, Justice Gurpal Singh Ahluwalia pointed to India’s marital rape exemption, which does not make it a crime for a man to force sex on his wife, a relic of British rule more than 70 years after independence.
I know it seems like a juvenile concern but this article did not reveal what the act was… and, honestly, while it is not the primary concern, knowing it could help contextualize to what extent the law is degrading to women and siding with men…
I will try to look for the dirty deets in the morning.
The article said the under Indian law it’s not illegal to force your wife into sexual acts
It literally does not matter at all what the act was. The court said rape is legal and that’s the problem… that includes all sex acts.
Oh yeah, I agree with you here, and I am probably overstepping my bounds when I say this but…
I understand how Muslim men believe their wife has a contractual obligation to provide sexual services to them because, in this religion, she does, and I do not know how I would navigate this if it was a believing Muslim man and Muslim woman and the man was insisting he has a right to vanilla PIV intercourse… In a very real sense, the religion of both parties affirms this… I do not believe in this, as it is not my religion, and I do not believe in laws that enable this to be legally binding, but I understand how there is a cultural and religious context here that necessitates some sensitvity when interfacing with the problem…
But I can also see a certain even greater horror in Indian courts saying “OH no, it goes beyond even normal copulation,” and a woman who was otherweise willing to live out cultural norms that are hallal or proper within her Hindu marriage is now having something beyond the pale imposed on her…
I say this in respect to foreign cultures, primarily, and I am not trying to be antagonistic or rude towards our own sensibilities, or deny their validity. Only to emphasize the necessity of context.