- विज्ञापन -
Gwalior, May 29: In a significant ruling, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has held that forcing a wife into unnatural sex against her will and subjecting her to physical cruelty amounts to “Cruelty” under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The High Court recently held that a husband who engages in unnatural sexual acts with his wife without her consent and subsequently assaults her for resisting such acts is guilty of cruelty under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The accused had approached the Court for quashing the entire case registered on the complaint of his wife. She has alleged that the man would engage in unnatural sex with her after consuming liquor, and whenever she refused to consent to the same, she was assaulted and treated with cruelty.
In his defense, the husband argued that having unnatural sex with his wife does not amount to rape under Section 375 of the IPC. He further claimed that if unnatural sex is not considered a criminal offence, then the charge of cruelty under Section 498A also cannot stand.
The Court acknowledged that, based on a previous High Court ruling, unnatural sex with one’s wife is not punishable under sections 376 or 377 of the IPC. However, if noted that in this particular case, there were clear allegations that the wife was physically assaulted whenever she resisted the husband’s unnatural acts. This, the court held, constitutes cruelty under Section 498A.
Justice GS Ahluwalia, while quashing the charge under Section 377 (Unnatural sex) against the accused, upheld the charges under Sections 498A(cruelty) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC.
“Committing unnatural sex with wife against her wishes and on her resistance, assaulting and treating her with physical cruelty will certainly fall within the definition of cruelty,” the Court said.
The court clarified that while Section 377 may no longer apply in cases involving consenting adults following the Supreme Court’s 2018 judgement decriminalising consensual acts within a marriage, particularly when accompanied by violence and coercion, fall squarely under cruelty.
The judgment highlights that marriage does not grant a man unrestricted sexual rights over his wife, especially when her autonomy and consent are violated.
