Madhya Pradesh: Holding that a husband cannot be prosecuted under Section 377 IPC (Unnatural Offence) in view of Section 375 IPC (Rape) which exempts marital sex and also covers all possible penile penetration, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has observed that if anything is done between them apart from the deemed natural sexual intercourse, the same cannot be defined as ‘unnatural’.
The Court opined that when Section 375 IPC (as amended by the 2013 Amendment Act) includes all possible parts of penetration of the penis by a husband to his wife and when consent for such an act is immaterial, then there is no scope for the offense of Section 377 IPC to get attracted where husband and wife are involved in sexual acts.
“If sexual intercourse for procreation via penile-vaginal penetrative intercourse is considered to be natural sex and sexual relations of husband and wife is confined to that extent then in case if any husband or wife is not capable of procreation, then seemingly their relationship would become useless, but it does not happen. The conjugal relationship between husband and wife includes love that has intimacy, compassion, and sacrifice, although it is difficult to understand the emotions of husband and wife who share an intimate bond, sexual pleasure is an integral part of their relentless bonding with each other,” the Court said.
The husband’s plea to quash the criminal complaint against him was, therefore, allowed by the High Court. Advocates Vibhor Khandelwal, Ashish Agrawal, and Jayesh Gurnam represented the petitioner (husband). Advocate Puneet Shroti appeared for the State. Senior Advocate Sanjay Agrawal and Advocate Rahul Gupta appeared for the second respondent (wife).
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