New Delhi, Jan 19: The AAP Government today told the Delhi High Court that marital rape, where a spouse indulges in sexual relations without the willingness of the other, is already an offence under a penal provision.
The AAP government submitted that a woman is entitled to refuse sexual relations with her husband as the right to bodily integrity and privacy is secured to all women, married or unmarried, under Article 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) of the Constitution.
The submissions were made before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar during the hearing of a bunch of pleas seeking criminalisation of marital rape.
Delhi Government Additional Standing Counsel Nandita Rao said “marital rape is an offence under section 498A of IPC and the language of which is similar to personal law and the domestic violence law”.
Section 498A of IPC deals with cruelty to a married woman by her husband or his relatives where cruelty means any wilful conduct which is of such a nature which is likely to drive the woman to commit suicide or to cause grave injury or danger to life, limb or health(whether mental or physical) of the woman.
She said marital rape is one of the grounds of cruelty for divorce under the personal law.
Rao contended that a court cannot add an offence or impose punishment under the law as it is the prerogative of the legislature.
The submissions assume significance as one of the reasons given by the Centre for not making marital rape a criminal offence was that it could be “misused”.
The Centre has maintained that marital rape cannot be made a criminal offence as it could become a phenomenon which may destabilise the institution of marriage and become an easy tool to harass the husbands.
The court was hearing PILs by NGOs RIT Foundation, All India Democratic Women’s Association and a man and a woman, who have sought striking down of the exception in the Indian penal law that does not consider sexual intercourse with a minor wife, above 15 years of age, as rape.
Advocate Karuna Nandy, appearing for the NGOs, had earlier argued that misuse of a penal provision cannot be an argument for not criminalising an act and there might be false complaints lodged by women, but such cases were rare.
The NGOs had said around 20 million married women in India were victims of marital rape every year.
The Supreme Court, in a historic verdict in October last, had held that sexual intercourse with a girl below 18 years of age, even by the husband, would amount to rape.
It, thus, had read down a provision in the Indian Penal Code of 1860, exempting males from being tried for rape if the wives were between the age of 15 and 18 years.
The top court’s verdict is likely to have a ramification in the petition pending before the high court.
In the original petition before the high court, the NGOs had highlighted that the provision under the IPC did not consider non-consensual sexual intercourse with a wife, above 15 years of age, as rape.
The high court is also hearing two intervention applications, one in support of pleas to make marital rape an offence and the other opposing it.
The NGOs’ counsel had said that they have challenged the constitutionality of IPC section 375 on the ground that it discriminated against married women being sexually assaulted by their husbands.
Washington, Jan 20 : The US government officially shutdown on Saturday for the first time in five years after the Senate rejected a short-term spending bill to keep the federal government running, marking a chaotic end to Donald Trump’s first year as president
The shutdown began at 12:01 am (local time) after a few Republicans joined Democrats in blocking the crucial measure would have provided short-term funding for the Pentagon and other federal agencies
Trump blamed the Democrats for the shutdown which comes exactly a year after he was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States
“Dems want a shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the tax cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy,” he said
Despite last minute bipartisan meetings, the bill to fund the government until February 16 did not receive the required 60 votes. The Senate voted 50-48 to block the stopgap funding measure
The short-term spending bill was passed by the House on Thursday
This is part of the Democrats strategy to force President Trump and the Republicans to negotiate with them on illegal immigrants who are facing deportation
The effect of the shutdown would be felt most from Monday when the federal government employees would not be able to join for their work and be forced to stay at home without pay
It is estimated that more than 800,000 federal employees would be furloughed. Only the essential services would be open
The last time that a government shutdown happened was in 2013
Earlier in the day, the Office of Management of Budget said it was preparing for “what we’re calling the Schumer Shutdown”
The Director of Office of Management of Budget Mick Mulvaney told reporters that efforts were being made to have the government shutdown less impactful than it was in 2013
“We’re going to manage the shutdown differently. We are not going to weaponize it. We’re not going to try and hurt people, especially people having to work for this federal government. But we still need Congress to appropriate the funds,” he said
Military will still go to work, the border will still be patrolled, fire folks will still be fighting the fires and the parks will be open. But in each of these cases people will not be paid, Mulvaney said
Fanny and Freddy will be open, the post office will be open, the TSA will be open, but again all of these people will be working for nothing, which is simply not fair, he said
US Postal Services would be working
The last government shutdown lasted for 16 days in October 2013. The previous shutdown before that was for 21 days that ended on January 6, 1996
However, this is for the first time in recent history that a shutdown has taken place when both the House and the Senate as well as the White House is controlled by the same party
“This is completely unfair and uncompassionate for my Democratic colleagues to filibuster government funding, harm our troops, and jeopardise health coverage for nine million children because extreme elements of their base want illegal immigration to crowd out every other priority,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said
He argued that immigration reform needed to be handled separately from the spending bill
Trump has cancelled his scheduled weekend trip to Mar-a- Lago in Florida. However, he would continue with his trip to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum meeting next week
“Democrats can’t shut down the booming Trump economy. Are they now so desperate they’ll shut down the government instead?” said White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and described it as a “Schumer shutdown”
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer is the Senate Minority Leader
“Senate Democrats own the Schumer Shutdown. Tonight, they put politics above our national security, military families, vulnerable children, and our country’s ability to serve all Americans,” Sanders said
“We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands. This is the behaviour of obstructionist losers, not legislators,” Sanders said in a statement
“When Democrats start paying our armed forces and first responders we will reopen negotiations on immigration reform
During this politically manufactured Schumer Shutdown, the President and his Administration will fight for and protect the American people,” the White House said
Earlier, Trump held a last-minute meeting with Schumer to avert a government shutdown
“We had a long and detailed meeting. We discussed all of the major outstanding issues, we made some progress, but we still have a good number of disagreements. The discussions will continue,” Schumer said soon after his meeting with Trump.