Struggles in Criminalizing Marital Rape

Marital rape is one of the gruesome crimes committed in our society and yet no machinery is present to punish the wrongdoer. Section 375 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 and even Bhartiya Nyaya Sahnita, 2023 offers a protection to the husband, an immunity which shields him from being convicted of rape against his own wife. The blanket immunity given by criminal law is an unjust one, since it yields away the basic right of a woman i.e. to deny forcible sexual intercourse. A woman being denied of the right against forcible sex is erroneous, but in the same breath, the exception granting protection to the husband is also just. The injustice occurs when a group of people are not protected against a crime, but it is not unfair to protect a group of people from being wrongly prosecuted of a crime. Protection to the husband from rape is necessary to avoid false allegations or undelivered justice and yet absence of a legal provision protecting integrity of a woman is sinful. This article discusses the legality of the immunity granted to husbands and the significance of the basic right of a woman’s physical integrity.