Examining The Impact Of Restorative Justice On ‘Marital Rape’ In India: A Human Rights Approach

Abstract

Justice cannot be measured and explained in terms. It depends on the perception of a person. The new dimension of justice which seems to restore the justice before any matter will be brought to the criminal justice system is known as theory of restorative justice. The aim and objective of the theory is to compensate the victim and to do community service. But the researcher in this study would like to explore the impact of the theory of restorative justice with respect to “Marital Rape”. Marital Rape is a grey area under Indian Law and implies sexual intercourse done by husband with his own spouse without her consent and it can also be termed as physical or domestic violence against spouse. Section 375(6) Indian Penal Code (IPC) states that a man is said to commit “rape” who, except in the case hereinafter excepted, has sexual intercourse with a woman with or without her consent, when she is under sixteen years of age. An exception to Section 375 in the IPC does not find a man guilty who has sexual intercourse with his 15-year-old wife. The crime is to be proven beyond all reasonable doubts is the milestone of the criminal justice system.  “Marital Rape “is still considered a taboo in the society as it is not easy to prove, and can it be proved on “preponderance of probabilities.” Whether females are ready to stand against their husbands, if answer would be yes then what would be the implications and limitation of restorative justice in this scenario? Whether a female can be transformed through the restorative justice as rape survivor instead of rape victim? These are the broad questions which the paper seems to examine with special reference to Human Rights perspective.