RR Law Firm
April 04, 2026
Today I saw the series chiraiya which comes on marital r*pe and thereafter I thought to write something on the topic as it is a very sensitive scenario right now which is going on whole Nation
The story shows a woman facing brutal abuse by her husband while society simply tells her to adjust. It made me think deeply about our laws and how a woman can be forced by her own husband but the law does not easily call it a crime. The history of this issue is long and frustrating but we need to understand it from the very beginning to see where we stand today.
When the British made the Indian Penal Code in 1860 they put a specific rule under Section 375. This rule said s*xual acts by a man with his own adult wife is not r*pe. People back then believed marriage meant a woman gave permanent consent to her husband and her body was no longer entirely her own.
There is one small exception to this rule though. If a husband and wife are living separately under a court order of separation then forced s*x is a punishable offence. Earlier this was under Section 376B of the IPC and now it is under Section 67 of the new BNS. But for couples living together the protection for the husband always remained.
For decades women suffered in silence but eventually NGOs and activists started fighting back in the courts. A major turning point started in 2017 when a woman filed a police complaint against her husband Hrishikesh Sahoo in Karnataka. She accused him of r*pe cruelty and even abusing their daughter. The husband went to the Karnataka High Court and asked to drop the r*pe charges because of the marital r*pe exception.
On 23 February 2022 Justice M Nagaprasanna of the Karnataka High Court rejected the husbands plea. The judge relied on the JS Verma Committee report and said the law cannot be a license to commit crimes against society. The court clearly stated that treating a wife as subordinate violates her right to equality.
The husband did not accept this and on 10 May 2022 he filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Karnataka High Court decision.
Just one day later on 11 May 2022 the Delhi High Court delivered a split verdict on similar petitions filed by NGOs like the RIT Foundation. Justice Rajiv Shakdher said the exception is unconstitutional because it violates a womans bodily autonomy. On the other hand Justice C Hari Shankar said s*xual relations are a legitimate expectation in marriage so the exception is legal. Both judges allowed the parties to appeal to the Supreme Court.
On 19 July 2022 a Supreme Court bench including former Chief Justice NV Ramana put an interim stay on the Karnataka High Court judgment. Interestingly the State of Karnataka supported the High Court decision against the husband.
The fight continued and in late 2022 Dalit activist Ruth Manorama filed a fresh petition at the Supreme Court challenging the marital r*pe exception. Because there were so many cases from different states then Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha clubbed all these petitions together on 9 January 2023 and listed them for a combined hearing.
While the Supreme Court was preparing to hear the matter the Parliament made a huge decision. On 21 December 2023 Parliament passed the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita to replace the old IPC. Everyone hoped the new law would remove the exception. But Section 63 of the new act kept the exact same marital r*pe exception just like the old laws.
The Supreme Court case remained unheard for about a year until January 2024 when it was listed before a bench of then Chief Justice DY Chandrachud Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra. The main issues they need to decide are whether this exception violates a married womans right to equality and privacy.
Things took a major turn recently on 4 October 2024 when the Union government filed a 49 page affidavit. In this official document the government officially opposed striking down the marital r*pe exception. This was the first time the Union government completely opposed the removal of the exception.
This is exactly where we stand today. The case is pending and the Supreme Court has to make the final decision.
But women are not completely helpless right now. While they cannot file a direct r*pe case against a husband living with them they can use the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 to stop s*xual abuse. They can also file a case for cruelty under Section 85 of the BNS if the husband causes mental or physical trauma. They can also get a divorce based on cruelty because family courts recognize forced relations as a strong ground to end a marriage.
The series chiraiya shows the painful reality of many Indian homes. The journey from silence to justice is very long but no woman should ever have to adjust to abuse while we wait for the law to change.
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