Newspaper Analysis for the OAS Exam

 Keeping in mind the structural changes in the General studies paper in the 2020 OAS Main Exam, the newspaper analysis is a nice idea to score good marks.  Regular GS Paper Analysis will help you in your Essay, GS & Optional Papers.

Below I have tried to point out some exam oriented crispy points from the Newspaper.

The New Indian Express- 15-04-2022, Friday

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Article- Why Karnataka marital rape verdict is problematic

Link of the Article

OAS  Syllabus

Prelim Exam - Indian Polity Section (Constitution), Fundamental Rights, Article -20(1)

Main Exam - GS-1, Indian Polity

                    Sociology Optional- Paper-2, Chapter-12

                    Topic- Atrocities Against Women

Note-  

1. Article 20(1) of the Constitution says that “no person shall be convicted of any offence except for violation of a law in force at the time of the commission of the act charged as an offence”.
2. Case was not one challenging constitutional validity of exception under Sec 375. But what was not an offence at time of its commission cannot be termed as an offence by way of an interpretive process.
3. In Hrishikesh Sahoo v. State of Karnataka, Justice M Nagaprasanna held that “in the peculiar facts and circumstances” of the case, when the husband “rapes” a wife, he cannot claim the protection of exception enumerated under Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), since the exemption is not “absolute”. The court said that “no exemption in law can be so absolute that it becomes a license for commission of crime against society”.
4. In the words of the court, “a man is a man; an act is an act; rape is a rape, be it performed by a man the ‘husband’ on the woman ‘wife”’.
5. Section 375 of the IPC defines the offence of rape. Exception 2 under Section 375 says that sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife is not rape, provided the wife is not under 15 years of age. Thus, according to the provision, even if the husband commits rape on his wife, no offence could be made out. Marriage thus erases an offence that is otherwise punishable.
6. The court is also correct in noting the recommendation of the Justice Verma Committee (2013) that called for deletion of this exception from Section 375 to restore the principles of constitutional morality into our penal laws.
7. Marital rape is a crime in many nations like Canada, Israel, France, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Poland, notes the judgment.
8. There is a marked difference between decriminalising an act labelling it as unconstitutional and criminalising it on the ground of unconstitutionality. The Supreme Court adopted the former approach while decriminalising homosexuality (Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India, 2018) and Adultery (Joseph Shine v. Union of India, 2018).