Supreme Court fixes May 9 to hear petitions seeking criminalisation of marital rape

The Supreme Court on Wednesday fixed the date of May 9 for detailed hearing on batch of petitions pertaining to the criminalisation of marital rape.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud. She told the bench that the order of arguments and common compilation in the case is ready.

The batch of petitions, which was listed before a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala for March 21 could not be heard due to Justice Pardiwala's absense.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the Centre's reply is ready and has to be vetted. "List this on May 9, 2023," the bench said.

The top court on January 16 had sought a response of the Centre on a batch of petitions pertaining to criminalisation of marital rape.

The batch of petitions address four different matters.

The first is the appeal against the Delhi High Court split verdict on the marital rape exception. This appeal has been filed by Khushboo Saifi, one of the petitioners before the Delhi High Court. The Delhi High Court on May 11 last year had delivered a split verdict on the issue.

The second includes PILs filed against the marital rape exception; third is the plea challenging the Karnataka High Court judgment which sustained the charges framed against a husband under Section 376 IPC for forcible sex with wife; and the fourth are intervening applications.