Nandita Yadav and Neelangini Tiwari, LLB, Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi
ABSTRACT
The paper is a comparative study of legislations and protective guidelines in different countries regarding marital rape and cyber-crimes against women and sets out to understand the constitutional and legal regime for the protection of women against crimes from an international and national perspective.
With sexual violence being one of the top forms of abuse in marriages, the void in criminalising the offence leaves the victims without legal recourse. Further, the advent of technology coupled with the fact that women continue to be a vulnerable section of our society has necessitated a women-centric cybercrime legislative framework. With there being several countries criminalizing these offences and having robust mechanisms for punishment, India lags far behind. A limited judicial and legislative framework being the common denominator in both these offences warrants a high degree of concern. Through a doctrinal study of existing legislations of different nations using relevant statistics, important case laws and case studies, the paper attempts to analyse how a legal foundation can be developed for the identification of marital rape in domestic disputes alongside the distinct protection of women in the immensely growing cyberspace. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: firstly, to get a better understanding and grasp of the situation in different countries regarding both the verticals and secondly, it strives to come up with pragmatic solutions to the legal lacuna in the Indian framework.
Key Words: Marital Rape, Cybercrime, Crime against Women, Cyber Bullying, Harassment.
