NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday decided to consider on September 16 a clutch of petitions arising out of a Delhi High Court's split verdict on marital rape.
A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and B V Nagarathna told advocate Karuna Nundy, appearing for All India Democratic Women's Association, that there were other petitions too and the court intended to hear all of them together.
The court ordered for posting the matter on September 16 for hearing.
Nundy said the petitioners are seeking this bench to decide a substantial question of law.
"Let all the matters come, we will tag them and hear all at one time," the bench said.
On May 11, 2022, the Delhi High Court had given a split judgement on plea a challenging validity of Exception 2 of Section 375 Indian Penal Code (IPC) which decriminalised marital rape.
Justice Rajiv Shakdher favoured striking down the marital rape Exception, while Justice C Hari Shankar, the other judge in the bench, had said the provision under the IPC is not unconstitutional and was based on an intelligible differentia.
The court had then passed the judgement on petitions filed by NGOs RIT Foundation, AIDWA, a man and an woman seeking a direction to strike down of the Exception granted to husbands under the Indian rape law.
Importantly, the Union government had preferred not to take any stand before the High Court on the subject, saying it was required to consult States and other stakeholders.
On March 23, 2022, a single judge bench of Justice Nagaprasanna in Karnataka High Court, in a judgement, had said Exception granted to husband under the law against the offence of rape leads to inequality and runs counter to Article 14 (equality) of the Constitution.
The High Court had then suggested the law makers to ponder over existence of such inequalities in law. It had also held a man can be prosecuted for offence of rape with his wife and the Exception granted to husband under Section 375 of the IPC cannot be absolute.
However, the top court in July this year stayed the operation of the Karnataka High Court's judgement.
