Kareena Wadhwani & Aakash Srivastava, Indore Institute of Law
ABSTRACT
Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code encompasses all kinds of non- consensual sexual intercourse and other non-consensual sexual penetration committed against women. However, an exception has been made to this section that does not consider non-consensual sex between husband and wife as rape. The current law presumes marriage as the consent of a wife given to her husband for sexual relationships. In the times when almost every country has criminalized marital rape, India still remains among those thirty-odd countries that haven’t done so. This topic has always been a hot topic of debate among the people. In this paper, we will analyze the constitutionality of marital rape. Further, we will discuss the reasons of not criminalizing it and how available remedies are not sufficient on this issue. A model is proposed by suggesting some changes in the current provisions of criminal law as well as that of civil law in this paper.
