The Supreme Court will take up the marital-rape exception for final hearing in three weeks

The Supreme Court has said it will begin final hearing in three weeks on petitions challenging the marital-rape exception in Indian criminal law. No final ruling has been delivered, so the present development is procedural but constitutionally important.

At the centre of the case is whether marriage can justify a different criminal-law treatment of non-consensual sex between spouses. Petitioners have invoked equality, dignity, bodily autonomy and sexual consent, while arguments defending legislative caution raise questions about criminal-law design, proof and the role of Parliament.