Supreme Court of India to examine marital rape exception

The Supreme Court of India has agreed to examine the constitutional validity of the marital rape exception found in Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the corresponding provision under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The legal challenge questions whether non-consensual sexual acts by a man with his adult wife should be legally classified as rape.

A three-judge bench, led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and including Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, is scheduled to hear eight tagged matters. Petitioners argue that the current exception violates fundamental rights to equality, dignity, and bodily autonomy, effectively denying married women the same legal protections afforded to unmarried women.

During the proceedings, Justice Joymalya Bagchi noted that marriage should not result in the “extinction of a woman’s autonomy”. The court will also review an appeal against a 2022 Karnataka High Court judgment that refused to quash rape charges against a husband accused of sexually assaulting his wife.