{"id":119692,"date":"2021-07-19T20:11:17","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T14:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=119692"},"modified":"2021-07-20T16:38:01","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T11:08:01","slug":"conjugal-rights-before-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/conjugal-rights-before-supreme-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Conjugal rights before Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-conjugal-rights-before-supreme-court-7411007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Indian Express<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong> &#8211; Laws related to marriage are very important to save individual&#8217;s from exploitation. All obsolete laws must be reconsidered.<\/p>\n<h5><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court (SC) challenging <\/span><b>a provision in the Hindu personal law related to the restitution of conjugal rights.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 As per the petition, a grave violation of sexual and privacy rights happens whenever the right to restitution of conjugal rights is exercised by one spouse over another.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the coming week, the SC\u00a0 may hear a fresh challenge to the provision allowing restitution of conjugal rights under Hindu personal laws. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2019, a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court had agreed to hear the pleas.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>About Conjugal Rights:<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are rights created by marriage, i.e. the right of the husband or the wife to the society of the other spouse.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The law recognises these rights\u2014 both in personal laws dealing with marriage, divorce, etc and in criminal law requiring payment of maintenance and alimony to a spouse.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The concept of restitution of conjugal rights is codified in Hindu personal law now, but has colonial origins and has genesis in ecclesiastical law.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similar provisions exist in Muslim personal law as well as the Divorce Act, 1869, which governs Christian family law.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Incidentally, in 1970, the United Kingdom repealed the law on restitution of conjugal rights.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>What is the provision under challenge?<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> deals with restitution of conjugal rights and is under challenge.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It states that when either the husband or the wife has withdrawn from the company of the other without a reasonable cause, then the aggrieved party may apply for restitution of conjugal rights. This provision requires a person to cohabit with another against their will.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A petition for restitution can be filed in district court. The court, after being satisfied with the truth of such a petition or absence of legal ground to forbid restitution, may decree restitution of conjugal rights accordingly.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Normally, when a spouse files for divorce unilaterally,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the other spouse files for restitution of conjugal rights if he or she is not in agreement with the divorce<\/span><b>.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The provision is seen to be an intervention through legislation to strike a conciliatory note between sparring spouses.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Why has the law been challenged?<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Section 9 violates the fundamental right to privacy <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which is now a fundamental right under article 21 of the constitution.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further, court-mandated restitution of conjugal rights amounted to a \u201ccoercive act\u201d on the part of the state, which violates one\u2019s <\/span><b>sexual and decisional autonomy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although the law is gender-neutral since it allows both wife and husband to seek restitution of conjugal rights, the provision <\/span><b>disproportionately affects women<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women are often called back to marital homes under the provision and given that marital rape is not a crime, leaves them susceptible to such coerced cohabitation.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>What has the court said about the law earlier<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">?<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1983, the Andhra Pradesh High Court (HC) and the Delhi HC delivered opposite judgments on the restitution of conjugal rights.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Andhra HC struck down the provision in the case of <\/span><b>T Sareetha v T Venkatasubbaiah <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and declared it null and void.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court said it violated privacy rights and recognised that compelling \u201csexual cohabitation\u201d would have \u201cgrave consequences for women\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the Delhi HC upheld the provision in the case of <\/span><b>Harvinder Kaur v Harmander Singh Chaudhry<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The court said it is in the interests of the State that family life should be maintained and that homes should not be broken up by the dissolution of the marriage of parents.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Later, in 1984, the Supreme Court upheld Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act in the case of <\/span><b>Saroj Rani v Sudarshan Kumar Chadha<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It said that the provision \u201cserves a social purpose as an aid to the prevention of break-up of marriage\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thus, the Supreme Court upheld the Delhi High Court view and overruled the Andhra Pradesh High Court verdict.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Conclusion<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although the provision of restitution of conjugal rights has been upheld in the past, legal experts have pointed out that the landmark verdict in the privacy case has set the<\/span><b> stage for potential challenges to several laws. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This includes criminalisation of homosexuality, marital rape, restitution of conjugal rights, the two-finger test in rape investigations, and others.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Indian Express\u00a0 Relevance &#8211; Laws related to marriage are very important to save individual&#8217;s from exploitation. All obsolete laws must be reconsidered. Synopsis: A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court (SC) challenging a provision in the Hindu personal law related to the restitution of conjugal rights.\u00a0 As per the petition, a grave&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/conjugal-rights-before-supreme-court\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Conjugal rights before Supreme Court<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[8495,263,264],"class_list":["post-119692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-conjugal-rights-before-supreme-court","tag-gs-paper-1","tag-society","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119692\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}