The Centre on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that it is “re-looking” at its earlier stand on petitions seeking criminalisation of marital rape as that was brought on record in an affidavit filed several years ago.
Justice Rajiv Shakdher, who is heading the Bench hearing a batch of petitions to strike down the exemption from prosecution for the offence of rape granted to husbands under the Indian Penal Code, said the Central Government needs to make up its mind with respect to its position on the issue.
“The learned Solicitor General had said that we will be re-looking at the affidavit. These are affidavits quite back in point in time in 2015-2017,” Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma, appearing for the Centre, told the bench also comprising Justice C Hari Shankar.
Justice Shakdher stated that there were only two ways of dealing with the issue of criminalisation of marital rape — either by a court decision or a decision taken by the legislature — and if the Centre does not clarify its stand, the court would go ahead with the affidavit already on record.
“There are only two ways of closing this issue. One is the legislative route, other is a court decision. There is no third way of closing this issue. You people need to make up your mind whether you need to stick to the position that you have taken in the counter (affidavit) or you will change it. If you want to change it, you must let us know,” he said.
“There is a position on record. You deal with it and if they change it they will come back and tell us,” Justice Shakdher told the counsel for the petitioner.
ASG Sharma requested the court to allow the Centre to make submissions on the petitions next week. Last week, the court had asked the Centre to inform whether it wished to withdraw its earlier affidavit filed in the matter in view of its latest stand that it was undertaking a “consultative process on the issue”.