The Chhattisgarh High Court has said that sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his wife is not a rape and therefore, if any unnatural sex as defined under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code is committed by the husband with his wife, then it too cannot treated as an offence.
The court was hearing an appeal filed by a 40-year-old Bastar district resident against his conviction in a case pertaining to the death of his wife in 2017. A sessions court had held that the woman became ill [and died subsequently] owing to forced physical relationship.
The sessions court had convicted him under Sections 377 (unnatural sex), 376 (rape) and 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 years. The trial court had convicted the appellant based on a dying declaration by the wife.
Acquitting the appellant on February 10, Justice Narendra Kumar Vyas of the High Court wrote in the order: “Thus, it is quite vivid, that if the age of wife is not below 15 years then any sexual intercourse or sexual act by the husband with her wife cannot be termed as rape under the circumstances, as such absence of consent of wife for unnatural act loses its importance, therefore, this court is of the considered opinion that the offence under Section 376 and 377 of the IPC against the appellant is not made out.”
The court also expressed doubt over the “correctness of the dying declaration”
Published – February 12, 2025 03:11 am IST
