Syllabus Section:  Polity and Governance (GS Paper II)

Importance: UPSC Prelims and UPSC Mains

Why in News?

The challenge to the ‘restitution of conjugal rights’ assumes importance amid the debate on criminalisation of marital rape.

About:

Conjugal rights are rights created by marriage, i.e. right of the husband or the wife to the society of the other spouse.

Background:

Restitution of conjugal rights, considered a medieval ecclesiastical law from England codified in several statutes, including the Hindu Marriage Act and Special Marriage Act, owes its survival largely to the fact that marital rape is not recognised as crime.

Conjugal Rights and Women:

• Provisions of restitution of conjugal rights empower a husband or a wife to move the local district court, complaining that the other partner has “withdrawn” from the marriage without a “reasonable cause”.
• The provisions violate a woman’s freedoms of association, to reside anywhere in the country and practice a profession.
• That is, if a woman stays away from her husband for her job, would it mean that she has “withdrawn” from the marriage. Besides, “reasonable cause” is subjective.

Judgements related to Conjugal Rights:

• The courts have dealt with conjugal rights in a chequered manner.

• The Punjab and Haryana High Court in Tirath Kaur case, held that “a wife’s first duty to her husband is to submit herself obediently to his authority and to remain under his roof and protection”.
• The Supreme Court, in Saroja Rani case, held that the “right of the husband or wife to one another’s society is inherent in the very institution of marriage”.

Source: The Hindu