A Delhi court has acquitted a man accused of raping his wife, stating that forced intercourse with a woman does not amount to rape if she is married to the accused.

"The parties being husband and wife, the sexual intercourse between the two does not come within the ambit of the offence of rape, even if the same was against the will and consent of the victim," Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat said while acquitting Vikash, who was charged with raping his wife.

According to the prosecution, the wife claimed Vikash sedated her and took her to the office of the Registrar of Marriages at Ghaziabad in an intoxicated state. He got the marriage documents signed by her March 4, 2013. Later, Vikash raped her and then abandoned her, it said.

The woman filed a complaint at the Baba Haridas Nagar police station in southwest Delhi in October 2013. "Thus the prosecutrix (the wife) and the accused (Vikash) being legally wedded husband and wife, the prosecutrix being major, the sexual intercourse between the two, even if forcible, is not rape and no culpability can be fastened upon the accused," the court said in the order delivered May 7.

"There is no clinching or convincing evidence on record to show that the accused had administered any stupefying substance to the prosecutrix (the wife) on March 4, 2013, before taking her to the Ghaziabad court," it added. Vikash claimed innocence and said his marriage was solemnised Feb 2, 2011 at the woman's house. Upon the insistence of his wife, he decided to get their marriage registered and went to the Ghaziabad court.

Vikash alleged that his wife framed him in the rape case after he expressed his inability to get his sister's house transferred in his name.