New Delhi: There is no right but only an expectation of conjugal relations with wife in a marriage and the same also cannot lead to the husband having forced relations with her, Senior Advocate Rebecca John, who is also an amicus curiae told the Delhi High Court on Friday as it continued to hear pleas seeking the criminalisation of marital rape.
John said that expecting a sexual relationship is not wrong in marriage but if the wife withdraws, the remedy is through dialogue or the husband may seek a civil remedy.
"Expectation cannot result in the husband having forced sex with his wife The consequences (of the withdrawal) maybe something else. It may result in the marriage breaking down. I'm not denying that. It may result in the husband seeking a civil remedy. In a given situation, the husband may be right and the right may be unreasonable (but) there is no right. There can be an expectation. The expectation cannot lead to forceable sex on your wife," the senior lawyer told a bench of Justices Rajiv Shakdher and C Hari Shankar.
"I don't want to trivialise it. This is not about expectation and one woman saying one day that I'm not in the mood. This is about a man exercising his dominant right over his wife despite the wife saying that I cannot and will not do it with you," she explained.
The amicus' submissions were in response to the court's observation that there was a difference between a married and unmarried relationship, with the former entailing an element of expectation of a reasonable sexual relationship.
The court will hear the matter next on January 24.