The Kerala High Court on Friday observed that marital rape was a valid reason to seek divorce, Live Law reported “Merely for the reason ...
The Kerala High Court on Friday observed that marital rape was a valid reason to seek divorce, Live Law reported
“Merely for the reason that the law does not recognise marital rape under penal law, it does not inhibit the court from recognising the same as a form of cruelty to grant divorce,” a bench of Justices A Muhamed Mustaque and Kauser Edappagath said.
The High Court noted that in modern social jurisprudence, a husband cannot claim supremacy on the body or individual status of the wife.
“Treating a wife’s body as something owing to husband and committing sexual act against her will is nothing but marital rape,” the judges said.
The High Court was hearing an appeal moved by a husband against a family court judgement that allowed, on grounds of cruelty, a divorce petition moved by his wife.
The woman told the High Court that the man used to force her to have sex even when she was unwell and on the day his mother died. The husband also coerced her into having unnatural sex, the woman said. She also said that he engaged in sexual intercourse in front of their daughter.
Further, she said that her husband repeatedly accused her, without any evidence, of having illicit relationships with the caretaker of...
