On Thursday, the Supreme Court made some landmark rulings on marital rape and abortion. Forced or non-consensual sexual intercourse between married couples has so far been only acknowledged as “abuse” by advocates. Earlier, many people expressed outrage over criminalizing marital rape saying it would give rise to false cases and violate men’s rights.
However, recently the Supreme Court acknowledged marital rape as “rape”. According to Hindustan Times, the Supreme Court ruled, “Forceful pregnancy of a married woman can be treated as ‘marital rape’ for the purposes of abortion.”
“Married women may also form part of the class of rape survivors. Rape means sexual intercourse without consent, and intimate partner violence is a reality. In this case, also woman may get forcefully pregnant. Any pregnancy alleged to be caused by force by a pregnant woman is rape,” said a bench which was headed by Justice Dhananjaya Chandrachud alongside Justice AS Bopanna and Justice JB Pardiwala.
According to NDTV, the court ruled that the definition of rape must include marital rape under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act.
“Ordinary meaning of the word rape is sexual intercourse with a person without their consent or against their will regardless of whether such forced intercourse occurs in the context of matrimony,” the court stated.
What are your views on this ruling?