'Marriage not licence to unleash brutal beast', says Karnataka HC

In a ground-breaking judgement, the Karnataka High Court has upheld framing of charges against a husband accused of raping his wife. The court observed, “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”.

The charge framed against the husband under Section 376 of the IPC for alleged rape of his wife does not warrant any interference. If the allegation of rape is removed from the block of offences alleged, it would, in the peculiar facts of this case, be doing tremendous injustice to the complainant-wife and would amount to putting a premium on the carnal desires of the petitioner-husband,” said Justice M Nagaprasanna while hearing a petition filed against the session’s court order.