In the wake of the High Court seeking clarity on whether the Centre would stick to its earlier stand — against making marital rape a criminal offence — the Centre on Thursday urged the court to defer the ongoing proceedings, seeking time to carry out a consultation process with all stakeholders including all the State governments.
A Bench of Justice Rajiv Shakdher and Justice C. Hari Shankar had earlier this week said that if the Union government does not clarify its stand, the court would go by the earlier affidavits filed by it.
The Bench had remarked that this issue could not be kept hanging.
The Union government had, in an affidavit filed in 2017, stated that criminalising marital rape “may destabilise the institution of marriage” and would become an easy tool for harassing husbands.
However, in an additional affidavit, filed on Thursday, the Centre said that it could assist the High Court “only after a consultative process is undertaken by the Central government with all stakeholders including the State governments”.
“The government of India is committed to fully and meaningfully protect the liberty, dignity and rights of every woman who is the fundamental foundation and a pillar of a civilized society,” the Centre said.
‘Far-reaching affect’
“At the same time, the question involved in the petition may not be treated merely as a question concerning constitutional validity of a statutory provision as the subject matter has and will have very far reaching socio-legal implications in the country. The matter, therefore, needs a comprehensive approach rather than a strictly legal approach,” it added.
“The State governments are not before this court. No other stakeholders are before this court other than few affected parties and the Central government,” it highlighted.
While the first petition in the case was filed in 2015, the day-to-day hearing commenced in January this year after one of the petitioners mentioned the matter for final hearing. This left, “no time for the Centre government to deliberate upon the issue and implication involved with all stakeholders as such an exercise, by it very nature, takes a reasonable time,” the Centre stated in its affidavit.
“Absence of any such consultative process by the executive/ legislature, may result in some injustice to one section or the other,” it said.
The High Court will continue hearing the case on Friday.
In India, marital rape is not defined in any statute or law.
