Feminist⁵ campaigners said the judgment⁶ highlighted the failure of Indian law to protect the majority of women in the country - those who are married - from being raped or their right to refuse to have sex with their husbands.

 

In this latest case, the women, whose identity was not revealed, claimed her marriage was illegal and had been conducted against her will after she had been sedated（给……服镇定剂）.

 

A man, identified only as Vikash, had taken her to a registry office in Ghaziabad, just outside New Delhi, in March last year where he forced her to sign a marriage certificate while she was intoxicated⁷. He later raped her and then fled, she alleged¹.

 

The accused denied drugging the woman or raping⁸ her and said their marriage had been consensual. She had only alleged rape six months after their marriage when they became involved in a property dispute.

 

In his judgment, Judge Virender Bhat said there was no evidence Vikash had drugged his wife or forced her to marry him but even if he had forced the complainant to have sex with him, it would not be a crime under Indian law.

 

"The prosecutrix (the wife) and the accused (Vikash) being legally wedded⁹ husband and wife, and the prosecutrix（女起诉人） being major, the sexual intercourse¹⁰ between the two, even if forcible, is not rape and no culpability¹¹（有过失，有罪） can be fastened upon the accused", the court ruled.

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