'Marital rape is violence, not conjugal rights': Shashi Tharoor moves bill to strip husbands of immunity

Tharoor’s bill, tabled during the ongoing Winter Session, proposes an amendment to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the country’s principal criminal law, to strike down the exception that shields a husband from prosecution for non-consensual sex with his wife if she is over 18.

The exception effectively means marital rape is not legally treated as rape in India.

Speaking at an event titled tete-a-tea hosted by Prabha Khaitan Foundation in association with Sanskriti Sagar and FICCI flo Kolkata, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said the current provision rests on “an outdated assumption that marriage is a sacred sacrament and that whatever happens within it cannot be classified otherwise.”

He added that the law also assumes “a husband’s conjugal rights are unquestionable in a court of law.”

Tharoor argued that this framework ignores a fundamental truth: “Marital rape is not about conjugal rights, love or the conduct of a marriage — it is about violence. And violence is rightly criminalised in our country because it violates a person’s bodily autonomy, agency and fundamental rights.”

Calling the exception a “travesty,” Tharoor highlighted how it offers impunity even in cases where couples are separated but not yet divorced.

“A lot of marital rape occurs among couples who are separated but not legally divorced. You often see situations where, for example, talaq has been pronounced, the husband is living separately, and yet he returns whenever he wishes and forces himself on his wife — and nothing can be done because the law still considers them husband and wife,” he said.

What has shocked him further, the four-term MP noted, is the defence of this exemption by “women ministers handling this portfolio.”

“That, to me, is unbelievable — and we must speak out against it,” he added.

The bill stresses that marriage cannot override a woman’s right to consent.

It emphasises that consent must be affirmative — “only yes means yes” — and cannot be assumed simply because of marital status. Every woman, Tharoor argues, deserves bodily autonomy and dignity, including within marriage.