The Union government has no proposal to criminalise marital rape, Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Responding to a question from Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghosh, the minister said that adequate legal remedies are provided under the 2005 Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 74, 75, 76 and 85.

Exception 2 to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code stated that forcible sexual intercourse by a man with his wife is not rape unless the wife is below 15 years of age. Section 375 defines the offence of rape. The provision now comes under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which replaced the Indian Penal Code on July 1.

Section 74 of the criminal code deals with punishment for sexual assault on women, while Section 75 deals with sexual harassment.

Section 76 pertains to the punishment for assault and the use of criminal force with an intent to disrobe and Section 85 deals with the punishment for cruelty to a woman by her husband or his relative.

On October 2, the Centre told the Supreme Court that attracting the offence of rape when consent is violated in the institution of marriage may be “excessively harsh” and “disproportionate”.

Marital rape as an act “ought to be illegal and criminalised”, said the Centre. “A woman’s consent is not obliterated by marriage, and its violation should result in penal consequences.”

However, the consequences of such violations “within marriage differ from those outside it”, it added.

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