Marital rape can be accepted as a ground to grant divorce by recognising it as a form of cruelty, the Kerala High Court has held.
The Supreme Court had, in 2019, turned down a plea to accept martial rape as a ground for divorce. The high court gave its ruling while hearing an appeal filed by a husband against a divorce granted by a family court in 2014.
“Treating wife’s body as something owing to husband and committing sexual act against her will is nothing but martial rape. Right to respect for his or her physical and mental integrity encompasses bodily integrity ; any disrespect or violation of bodily integrity is a violation of Individual autonomy…,” the high court said.
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