700 Cases in 2015, But Government Won’t Budge on Marital Rape

Maneka Gandhi has maintained that “a law on marital rape will make no difference because no one will complain”.

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi had last year stoked a controversy when she said in Parliament that there cannot be a law against marital rape. (Photo Courtesy: The Quint/Hardeep Singh)

The entire family system will be under great stress if marital rape is brought under the law, the government on Friday maintained even as around 700 cases pertaining to rape by live-in partners or separated husbands were filed in 2015.

Citing National Crime Records Bureau data, MoS Women and Child Development Krishna Raj on Friday said in Lok Sabha that cases related to rape by live-in partners or separated husbands in 2015 stand at around 700.

However, she reiterated the government’s stance against bringing marital rape under the law.

Also Read: Educated Girls Can’t Allege Rape After Pre-Marital Sex: Bombay HC

The Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs presented its 167th Report on Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 2012 on 1 March 2013.

“The Committee deliberated amendments to Section 375 of IPC including the issue of marital rape and observed that if marital rape is brought under the law, the entire family system will be under great stress and the committee may perhaps be doing more injustice,” she said.

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi had last year stoked a controversy when she said in Parliament that there cannot be a law against marital rape because marriage is a "sacrament".

Also Read: Marital Rape: Sexual Intercourse With Wife Not Rape, Centre to HC

Gandhi has maintained that "a law on marital rape will make no difference because no one will complain".

Section 375, which defines rape and deals with punishment for the crime, states that the rape law would not apply to assault or sexual intercourse by a husband on his wife who is above 15 years.

The JS Verma committee set up in the aftermath of nationwide protests over 16 December gangrape had recommended that marital rape be criminalised.

The UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women also recommended that the Indian government criminalise it.