'Rape is rape, even if man is the husband,' says Indian court in landmark ruling

In a landmark ruling, an Indian court on Friday refused to dismiss rape charges filed against a man by his wife stating that "a rape is a rape," and that marriage does not grant "special license to unleash a beast."

The husband had moved the case to Karnataka High Court after a trial court took cognisance of the offence. The 43-year-old man hails from Bengaluru and had asked the court to drop rape charges against him.

"A man is a man; an act is an act; rape is a rape, be it performed by a man the 'husband' on the woman 'wife'," said a single-judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna, according to a report in The Independent.

The court added that the "age-old...regressive thought that husbands are the rulers of their wives, their body, mind and soul should be effaced."

The woman had approached the court in 2017 after having been married to the man for 11 years.

In her complaint, she said that her husband had forced her to have sex even when she had miscarried. He has also been accused of sexually harassing their daughter.

Justice Nagaprasanna added: "The institution of marriage does not confer, cannot confer and in my considered view, should not be construed to confer any special male privilege or a licence for unleashing of a brutal beast."

"If it is punishable to a man, it should be punishable to a man albeit, the man being a husband," the court said. The court has asked to face the charges and added that such "acts scar the soul of the wives."

The ruling comes at a time when the country is seeing active discussions and debates around the issue since India has not yet criminalised marital rape.

The Indian Penal Code's (IPC) Section 375 dictates that "sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under eighteen years of age, is not rape."

Marital rape has been criminalised in countries like America, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Poland, France, Sweden, Denmark and Norway among several others, noted the court.