Volume : II, Issue : XI, November - 2013

Marital Rape– Is IT or Not a Sexual offence–A Retrospection

Ms. Gifty Oommen

Abstract :

Marital Rape refers to unwanted intercourse by a man with his wife obtained by force, threat of force, or physical violence, or when she is unable to give consent. The marital rape exemption can be traced to statements by Sir Mathew Hale, Chief Justice in England, during the 1600s in his treatise Historia Placitorum Coronae or The History of the Peas of the Crown. He wrote, “The husband cannot be guilty of a rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife, for by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract, the wife hath given herself in kind unto the husband, whom she cannot retract.” Now in India the new Section 375 has been inserted replacing the earlier Section 375 which had defined ‘Rape’ in the Indian Penal Code by the term ‘Sexual Assault’, by the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance 2013. Here in this section there is an exception provided which states that sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife , the wife not being under 16 years of age is not sexual assault. This concept defies the basic foundation of marriage, which is trust. If this trust is lacking , and if sex is forced, then it amounts to sexual assault, and no law can by legalizing sexual assault reinstate the lost trust in a marriage.  

Keywords :

Article: Download PDF   DOI : 10.36106/ijsr  

Cite This Article:

Ms. Gifty Oommen / Marital Rape- Is IT or Not a Sexual offence- A Retrospection / International Journal of Scientific Research, Vol.2, Issue.11 November 2013

Number of Downloads : 1920

References :