Marital rape case LIVE updates: Supreme Court to resume hearing pleas against laws granting immunity to husbands

The Supreme Court will continue hearing on Wednesday a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Exception 2 to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC). The challenge also extends, by implication, to Exception 2 of Section 63 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, which supersedes the former provision. These provisions grant legal immunity to Indian husbands by stipulating that “sexual intercourse or acts by a man with his wife, provided she is not under 18 years of age, do not constitute rape”. 
During the previous hearing, a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud questioned the logic behind a penal law which considers wrongful confinement, criminal intimidation, and assault of a wife by her husband as offences but not the act of forced sex which follows after the woman relents under pressure. 

However, a recent affidavit filed by the Centre said the punishment of non-consensual sexual acts in a wedlock and categorising it as rape would impact conjugal relationships and lead to “serious disturbances” in the institution of marriage. 
Opposing such contention, senior advocate Karuna Nundy, who represented the All India Democratic Women’s Association and opened the case for the petitioners, said, “Protecting a married woman from rape would not destroy the institution of marriage. Marriage is personal and not institutional… Sexual choices and consent are essential attributes of autonomy”.
Source:thehindu.com