00:00Consent in marriage and consent to marry is once again a topic of conversation across
00:04drawing rooms in India after the recent cases where husbands and wives have chosen to kill
00:10each other rather than just refuse to marry or divorce. But at the same time, a big discussion
00:20has to come on the question of marital rape. That is something that we've been talking about
00:25for several years really since the issue came up before the Delhi High Court. A two judges bench
00:31gave a dissenting opinion. Both judges dissented with each other. One said that marital rape should
00:37be a crime. The other said that that is something the court cannot do. The issue has remained pending
00:43before the Supreme Court since 2022. We are now in 2026 and the hearing in the case does not seem
00:50to be
00:50anywhere within sight. But the larger question in this situation still remains open. If you get
00:57married, what are your protections and does marriage really mean that you have consented to sex whenever
01:04and however your partner asks for? The marital rape exception under criminal law has been a very,
01:11very thorny question for women in the country for ages. Under the old IPC and again under the new BNS
01:19section, rape is defined as a woman being forced, threatened, coerced, induced into having sex when
01:29she does not want to do so. But the law says that if that force, coercion, threat, inducement etc is
01:37by
01:37the own husband of the woman, then it will not count as rape. Effectively, your husband can badger you,
01:44force you, force you, even hit you into having sex and that will not be counted as rape in the
01:51country.
01:51And that is exactly why this issue had gone to court. Very recently, the movie Chiraiya and now an
01:58episode in the iconic TV serial Kyuki Saaz Bhi Kabhi Bahuti addressed this issue. Who protects a wife if the
02:07husband is constantly forcing her into having sex? Who protects the wife from the sexual violence
02:14behind the closed doors of a bedroom? The government has taken the stance in the court that acknowledging
02:21marital rape as an offence will create problems both in the criminal justice system and will damage the
02:28social fabric of the social fabric of the country.
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