Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said consent is among the most “underrated concepts in our society” as the Delhi High Court hears petitions regarding the criminalisation of marital rape. “Consent is amongst the most underrated concepts in our society. It has to be foregrounded to ensure safety for women,” Gandhi said days after the Centre in a response to the high court said it was considering a “constructive approach” and sought suggestions from state governments, the Chief Justice of India, MPs and others on comprehensive amendments to the criminal law.

The statement came after Justice C Hari Shankar, who formed part of the division bench hearing a batch of petitions seeking criminalisation of marital rape, orally observed that a non-marital relation, no matter how close, and a marital relationship cannot be “parallelised”.

The court questioned as to why the exception from the offence of rape granted to a married couple had remained in the legislature for several years in spite of developments suggesting the contrary and remarked that “one of the possible reasons” was the wide scope of Section 375 of Indian Penal Code which included even a single act of “unwilling sex” as rape.

Justice Shankar also emphasised that the offence of rape was punishable with 10 years imprisonment and the issue of removal of marital rape exemption required “serious consideration”.

“There is no compromise with a woman’s right to sexual and bodily integrity. A husband has no business to compel. (But) the court can’t ignore what happens with we knock it (marital rape exception) off,” he stated. The judge also expressed his reservations with regards to the use of the term “marital rape”, saying that every act of rape has to be punished and repeated use of “marital rape” to define any form of an unwilling sexual relationship between a husband and a wife was a “pre-decision”.

Central government lawyer Monika Arora on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that the Centre was undertaking a comprehensive task of amending the criminal law which includes section 375 (rape) of the IPC.

(With PTI inputs)

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