Marital Rape Exception Bars Rape Case Against Husband; Wife's FIR Quashed: Rajasthan High Court

The complainant, a divorced adult, married the petitioner under the Special Marriage Act in Jaipur on 21.11.2022, and the marriage was registered (para 7). The couple sought protection from their families (para 8), and a daughter was born to them (para 9). She later lodged an FIR under Sections 419, 420, 384, 376(2)(n), 344, 327, 328, 120B and 376D IPC, alleging she was made to marry him through drugs, medicines and black magic and was raped (paras 1, 10). The State said charges had since been framed, including under the Rajasthan Prevention of Witch-Hunting Act, 2015, making the petition infructuous; the petitioner relied on Exception 2 to Section 375 IPC and on Mukesh v. State of Uttar Pradesh (paras 3-5).

The Court found from the record that the complainant, a major, had married the petitioner under the Special Marriage Act and that the marriage was registered and certified on 21.11.2022 (para 7). The FIR, it noted, was lodged with "vague allegations" (para 10), and its main allegation was rape (para 11). Setting out Section 375 IPC before and after the 2013 amendment, the Court observed that under Exception 2 sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife does not constitute rape (paras 12-14). It relied on the Supreme Court's judgment of 31.01.2025 in Kuldeep Singh v. State of Punjab, which dealt with the identical issue and held that a rape charge cannot be sustained against the husband (para 15). As the petitioner was the complainant's legally wedded husband, the offence under Section 376 was not made out, and the remaining offences were also not made out prima facie (para 16). Since she married him of her own accord as an adult and lodged the FIR "after a lapse of around three years since her marriage" and a year after the child's birth, it appeared that she had changed her mind (para 17).