The Marital Rape Exception

The "marital rape exemption" is a section of the Indian Penal Code that exempts violent sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife from the offence of rape if the wife is over the age of 15.

This exemption provision infringes on women's fundamental rights to equality, freedom of expression, and, most importantly, life and personal liberty.

It also denies women control over their own bodies.

Around 104 countries have criminalised marital rape.

The criminal law is defined as a body of law that deals with decisions involving wrongful acts and other offences, as well as charging and bringing convicted offenders to trial.

The fundamental purpose of criminal law is to provide justice to the offender and to punish the guilty by lawful means.

Crime is prevalent in many parts of the world in today's modern world. Theft, murder, physical assault, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and threatening are just a few examples.

Criminal law is framed in order to eliminate the wrongdoer's unjust activities.

The IPC (Indian Penal Code) is established in India. The Indian penal code is the country's current criminal code. It is a comprehensive approach to criminal law that has been developed to address all parts of the law. On October 9, 1860, the Indian penal code was enacted.

The most important aspect of criminal law is the elements of criminal law.

There are about 7 elements regarding criminal law. They are:

1)Legality–(Accordance with the law)

2)Actus Reus— (Conduct of Crime)

3)Causation— (Action of something)

4)Harm— (Physical or Material damage)

5)Concurrence— (Events of two or more events at the same time)

6)Mens Rea— (Intention of a wrongful act in a part of crime)

7)Punishment–(Imposition of penalty as payback towards an offence).

Some of the changes that need to be brought are:

A gender-neutral definition of rape is required. Section 375 of IPC does not include men, hijras, and boys as the victims of rape and only considers women as victims of rape.

Sedition under Section 124 A of the IPC was inserted by the Britishers in 1898 to control the uprisings against them and to suppress the freedom movements. However, in recent times this section is often misused against people who criticize the government.

Section 57: Life Imprisonment as a punishment is at the discretion of the court as to the number of years. It depends more on the nature of the crime that has been committed. But, when it comes to the calculation of fractions of punishment, it is fixed for 20 years. This takes away the discretionary power of a judge and differences arise upon choosing the approach of giving punishments.

Under Section 294, the act of annoying someone by performing any obscene act in public places is punishable. However, the word ‘obscene’ is not defined under the Act and this is often misused by the police.

The punishments provided under Chapter 3 are very conservative. It only provides for imprisonment or fine. There is no mention of community service or reforming the criminal in any way.

The recommendations of the state should be taken into account.

Legal scholars should also conduct surveys to determine which offences need to be added and which offences need to be amended.

It is necessary to identify regulations that are outdated and no longer applicable in today's world, and empirical study should be conducted in this regard.

Problems with the provisions' enforceability should also be investigated.

In India, the rate of sexual offences is extremely high.

Despite the several changes, the statute contains numerous flaws.

In light of this, a separate chapter devoted to the numerous sexual offences and their punishments may be formed.

The criminal justice system's reform is a multi-step process.

The revision of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) is a significant step toward modernising India's criminal law and aligning it with the country's democratic values.

Based on the deterrent argument, the British used IPC to their advantage and to imprison freedom fighters.

However, the system must now shift from a deterrent to a reformative one.

The revision of the IPC will ensure that the criminal justice system becomes more dependable and capable of understanding and responding to the causes of today's crimes.

It will also ensure that certain provisions of this ancient statute are removed because they are no longer applicable.

For example, in conformity with changes in the modern era, Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalised homosexuality and was based on the Victorian code, was decriminalised.

Previously, code amendments were fragmented and failed to result in a major change to the IPC as a whole.

Adding specific provisions should not be done to satisfy political agendas. Although overhauling the IPC will result in criminal justice reform, more adjustments to the police structure will be required. Even if the IPC is modified, the government will have difficulties in putting it into practise.