The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a woman who wants to book her husband under Section 377 IPC for forcing her to perform oral sex on him.
A Bench led by Justice N.V. Ramana will consider the question raised by the woman, who was a child bride, as to whether non-consensual oral sex amounted to an “unnatural offence” under the Section 377 IPC.
She challenged the Gujarat High Court’s finding in her case that Section 377 IPC did not include oral sex but only sexual acts like sodomy, bestiality and buggery.
The appeal has come at a time when the LGBTQ community is fighting a pitched battle to delete Section 377 from the Indian Penal Code itself.
They have argued that the provision, which criminalises consensual homosexual acts, is violative of their fundamental right to privacy, dignity and right to choose a partner. A Constitution Bench has reserved the case for pronouncing its judgment.
In this petition, the woman appellant said the high court found her husband guilty of assault with intent to insult the modesty of a woman.
She argued that her husband’s crime went beyond just an insult. His forcing her to engage in a “humiliating” sexual act was a gross violation of her privacy, dignity and bodily autonomy.
The woman argued that the ambit of Section 377 extended to other unnatural sexual acts which are both a cause of physical and psychological trauma for a woman.
She has asked the court examine whether Section 377 pertains only to buggery, sodomy and bestiality and does not consider “other sexual encounters against the order of nature and which can be described as carnal penetration”.
