Shaikh Insherah, National Law University Aurangabad
The Delhi High Court issued a split decision on the constitutionality of the marital rape exception on Wednesday, May 11, 2022. According to Justice Rajiv Shakdher, Exception 2 to Section 375 (which prescribes the marital rape exception) is "violative of Articles 14, 15, and 21 of the Constitution and thus must be struck down." Justice C Hari Shankar, the other judge on the division bench disagreed, holding that there were no grounds for the court to overturn the exception, which was justified under Article 14, because marriage created an intelligible difference.
But what exactly is marital rape? As the name implies, marital rape is rape that occurs during a marriage. However, for most of history and most of the world, such a thing made no sense. In fact, it was illogical because rape and marriage were thought to be incompatible concepts that could not coexist.
