The story so far: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday delivered a split verdict on decriminalising marital rape in the country. While Justice Rajiv Shakdher struck down Exception 2 of the Indian Penal Code’s Section 375 that decriminalised rape within marriage, Justice C. Hari Shankar upheld its validity. Exception 2 of Section 375 states that “sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape”. In October 2017, the Supreme Court of India increased the age to 18 years.
The court took seven years to hear petitions seeking to criminalise marital rape.
