'Apprehensions Over Misuse Can't Mean Withholding Marital Rape Law': Government Lawyer

We speak to Satyapal Jain, the Additional Solicitor General, on the controversy over the marital rape law. He says the authorities should conduct wide-ranging consultations at the earliest, given the access to technology. He also added apprehensions about misuse cannot be grounds to withhold the law. The Delhi High Court will be hearing the ongoing case on petitions challenging the legal exception that protects men from criminal prosecution in cases of forced non-consensual intercourse with their wives. The Delhi High Court is currently in the process of hearing final arguments in a series of public interest litigations (PILs) challenging the "marital rape exception" clause in Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Section 375 of the IPC defines various acts that, if done against a woman's consent, by force, fraud, or coercion, or to a woman incapable of giving consent, are defined as rape. The heart of the debate is the Exception 2 to Section 375 IPC, which states that any sexual act performed by a man on his own wife is not rape as long as the wife is not a minor.