Kochi: Marital rape can be a ground to have divorce as it is a form of cruelty said the Kerala high court. In 2019, the Supreme court turned down a plea to accept marital rape as the ground for divorce. the high court has held. In 2019, the Supreme court turned down a plea to accept marital rape as a ground for divorce. In 2014, the high court gave its decision while hearing an appeal filed by a husband against a divorce granted by a family court.
The high court said that, “treating wife’s body as something owing to husband and committing sexual act against her will is nothing but marital rape. Right to respect for his or her physical and mental intergrity encompass bodily intergrity; any disrespect or violation of bodily intergrity is a violation of individual autonomy” .
A division bench of Justices said that “such conduct cannot be panalised but it falls in the frame of physical and mental cruelty,” said a division bench of Justices, A Muhamed Mustaque and Kauser Edappagath, while referring to the allegation of unnatural sex against the husband
The case involves a doctor who married the daughter of a realtor in February 1995. A car, a flat and 501 sovereigns of gold were gifted but the husband suffered heavy losses in real-estate buisness. In 2019, he father-in-law had also given Rs 77 lakh to the man to pay off debts and it was also alleged that he misappropriated the gold. In 2009, the woman sought a divorce . The High court said that, ” a uniform, secular law on marriage and divorce that makes it easier for a spouse to exercise his/her fre will to seperate is the need of the hour.
The present legislation on divorce curtails an individual’s free will to seperate by limiting it through defined
grounds, such as cruelty, adultery, desertion etc. It said that “A spouce in a marriage has a choice, a choice not to suffer, which is fundamental to the autonomygyaranteed under natural law and the Constitution. Law cannot compel a spouse to suffer against his/her wish by denial od divorce,” said the high court.
