Dikhyaa Mohanty 
Treating a wife’s body as something owing to the husband and committing a sexual act against her will is marital rape, states the Kerala High Court. The statement came out while the court dismissed two appeals filed by a man challenging the decision of a family court granting a divorce.
According to the reports, a bench of the High Court, comprising Justice A Muhamed Mustaque and Justice Kauser Edappagath, stated that marriage and divorce must be under the secular law and the time has come to recast the marriage law of the country. The bench said “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 a divorce. We, therefore, are of the view that marital rape is a good ground to claim divorce.”
In order, the court said “Treating wife’s body as something owing to husband and committing a sexual act against her will is nothing but marital rape. The right to respect for his or her physical and mental integrity encompasses bodily integrity, any disrespect or violation of bodily integrity is a violation of individual autonomy. Spouses in a marriage are treated as equal partners and the husband cannot claim any superior right over the wife either with respect to her body or with reference to individual status.”
Further the court said “In this case, the insatiable urge of the husband for wealth and sex forced the respondent to seek divorce. The appellant’s licentious and profligate conduct cannot be considered as part of normal conjugal life. Therefore, we have no difficulty in holding that insatiable urge of a spouse for wealth and sex will also amount to cruelty.”
