The Delhi High Court has directed the central government to respond to a petition seeking the criminalisation of marital rape, ANI reported. The Centre has six weeks to respond to the notification and the next hearing in the case is scheduled for March 23.

In February last year, the High Court had rejected a public interest litigation on the matter. The PIL had challenged a provision in the penal law that does not consider sexual intercourse between a man and his wife who is a minor as rape. In addition, while hearing a case in May 2015, it had ruled that intercourse between husband and wife, even when forcible, is not rape.