NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that pleas challenging the marital rape exception had not been taken due to a day-long hearing in another matter relating to customs appeals today.A three-judge bench comprising Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra, the Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud assured the petitioners that the matter would be taken up for hearing soon.Senior Advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for one of the petitioners, had said that the pleas needed to be heard urgently.In response, the bench said they were seized of a part-heard matter and would assess the workload next two days after conducting the hearings.It is significant to note that the Union of India has so far not taken a stand on the controversial issue.A batch of pleas were pending in the top court for hearing, including the of plea of AIDWA challenging the marital rape exception under the new criminal laws.A 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.
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