India, Sept. 11 -- The Supreme Court recently stirred the debate over the marital rape exception in the Indian penal statute by observing whether courts can punish a husband for committing rape on a wife, who is not a minor, against her consent when the law protects such acts.

At the core of this question lies a constitutional debate and a mix of facts and law emanating from two judgments - one by the Karnataka High Court in March 2022 that allowed the prosecution of a husband for rape regardless of the marital rape exception (Exception 2 to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code) and another by the Delhi High Court delivering a split verdict in May 2022 on a clutch of public interest litigations challenging the Exception 2 to Section 375 ...