April - June 2010 - Bureau of Police Research and Development

Marital Rape : The Assasination of a Woman's Dignityeither description for a term which may extend totwo years and shall also be liable to fine.In fact, the Law Commission of India in its 42ndreport had put forward the necessity of excludingmarital rape from the ambit of Section 375. Thenthe 84th report of the Law Commission in April1980 disagreed with the restructuring suggestedby the former report. They felt that sucharrangement would "produce uncertainty anddistortion "and hence Section 375 should "retainit's present logical and coherent structure." Withregard to age, however, they were of the opinionthat it should be increased to 18 years. Even the172nd report of the Law Commission on Reviewof Rape Laws (March 2000) has preferred toadhere to its earlier opinion of non-recognition of"rape within the bonds of marriage "as such aprovision "may amount to excessive interferencewith the marital relationship". The only suggestionmade is (again) with regard to age that may beenhanced from 15 to 16 years. However, the205th Report of the Law Commission of Indiadated February 2008, has recommended that theexception to the rape section 375 of the IndianPenal Code, be deleted. This would ensure thatthe age of consent for sexual intercourse for allgirls, whether married or not, is 16.The 172ndreport of the Law Commission had recommendedincreasing the age of all girls for consent to 16.The Protection of Women from Domestic ViolenceAct, 2005 states that it is an Act to provide formore effective protection of the rights of womenunder the Constitution who are victims of violenceof any kind occurring within the family and formatters connected therewith or incidental thereto.Though the said Act nowhere mentions the termmarital rape but the essence of the heinous actcan be covered within the definition of DomesticViolence given under Section 3 of the Act. It statesthat for the purpose of this Act, any act, omissionor commission or conduct of the respondent shallconstitute domestic violence in case it, amongother criteria, harms or injures or endangers thehealth, safety, life, limb or well being, whethermental or physical, of the aggrieved person ortends to do so and includes causing physicalabuse, sexual abuse, verbal and emotional abuseand economic abuse. Even if the act has theeffect of threatening the aggrieved person or anyperson related to her by any conduct mentionedbefore, such act too shall come within the ambitof domestic violence. The explanation attachedto the section states that sexual abuse includesany conduct of a sexual nature that abuses,humiliates, degrades or otherwise violates thedignity of woman. It is important to note that thisAct too has failed to criminalize marital rape andhas provided only civil remedies. The provisionsof Section 31, which states that imprisonment ofeither description for a term which may extendto one year, or with fine which may extend totwenty thousand rupees, or with both, apply onlyin case of a breach a protection order, of aninterim protection order, by the respondent.The National Commission for Women has alsosuggested that sexual intercourse by a husbandwith his own wife against her consent should beshould also be considered sexual assault. TheCommission had released a report 'Rape: A LegalStudy, which stated that marital rape should berecognized as a criminal offence. Certain NGO's,Women's Groups, including The All IndiaWomen's Association and Sakshi, an NGOworking for women's rights, have alsorecommended that marital rape be recognizedas rape.SuggestionsBased on realizations and experiences whileworking on this issue, author would like to makethe following suggestions:Make the young generation conscious of suchgruesome act so that they themselves develophatred towards it.Women need to come out of the social taboosand develop a very pragmatic temper.It is high time that India should realize theneed of criminalization of marital rape. The70 ➢ The Indian Police Journal Vol. LVII-No. 2, April-June, 2010