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![Marital Rape criminalisation: Delhi High Court to pronounce verdict [LIVE UPDATES] - Vimarsana News](https://gumlet.assettype.com/barandbench%2F2022-05%2F8cec2e64-52b0-426f-adbf-ce393d0a2f28%2FWhatsApp_Image_2022_05_11_at_10_38_16_AM.jpeg?w=1200&auto=format%2Ccompress&ogImage=true)
The batch of petitions listed for verdict challenges Exception 2 to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which exempts non-consensual sex between husband and wife from the ambit of rape.
A two-member bench pronounced a split verdict with Justice Rajiv Shakdher, who headed the division bench, in favour of criminalising marital rape and Justice C Hari Shankar holding a contrary view and observing that the exception under the IPC is not “unconstitutional".
"The institution of marriage does not confer, cannot confer and in my considered view, should not be construed to confer, any special male privilege or a license for unleashing of a brutal beast," the court said.
The bench rejected an appeal and asserted the judgement of conviction of a rape accused and the resultant sentence by a trial court in 2018.
Notably, the Court has delinked the instant petition from the batch of pleas filed before the Court seeking criminalization of marital rape.