NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday said it listed for hearing on Tuesday, the batch of pleas challenging the marital rape exception under the new criminal law.
The pleas for early listing and hearing were mentioned by senior advocate Karuna Nundy, appearing for a litigant in the case, before the three-judge bench of the top court, which told her that the pleas were already "listed tomorrow" and they would be taken up after some part-heard cases.
There were a batch of pleas pending in the top court for hearing, including the of plea of AIDWA challenging the marital rape exception under the new criminal laws.
Two-judge Bench of the Delhi High Court had on May 12, 2022, in their verdict, had pronounced a split judgement on the issue related to criminalising marital rape. Delhi HC's Judge Justice Rajiv Shakdher ruled in favour of criminalising it, while Justice C Hari Shankar disagreed with the opinion and held that Exception 2 to Section 375 does not violate the Constitution as it is based on intelligible differences.
After this, many petitions were filed before the Supreme Court, challenging the Delhi HC verdict and sought appropriate orders and directions, including that of making marital rape as offence.