India, March 28 -- The Madhya Pradesh High Court has partially allowed a husband's petition seeking to quash an FIR for sexual abuse and dowry harassment, observing that "consent in a marriage is legally immaterial."

The court observed that in the context of the exceptions provided under rape provisions, any sexual intercourse or sexual acts committed by a husband upon his adult wife do not constitute rape, Live Law reported.

A bench of Justice Milind Ramesh Padke was hearing a plea seeking to quash an FIR filed for sections of cruelty, unnatural offences, voluntarily causing hurt, obscene acts and criminal intimidation.

Padke said that even if the allegations of forced "unnatural acts" made by the complainant accepted, they pertain to...