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AHMEDABAD: The state government has submitted before the Gujarat high court that forcing a wife to perform oral sex invites charges of domestic violence and not of rape and unnatural sex.

Last month, the high court formulated three questions whether the act amounts to unnatural sex punishable under Section 377 of IPC, rape under Section 376 and mental and physical cruelty in matrimonial life under Section 498A. The high court strongly condemned marital rape, but decided to answer the question as to which section of the Indian Penal Code is attracted for forcible oral sex.

In response to the high court’s query, the state government cited various authorities and submitted that there is an exception in the definition of rape for a married couple and hence charges of rape are not attracted in forcible oral sex with a wife.

The government further submitted that since there is no question of rape, there is also no possibility that such an act attracts charges under unnatural sex. However, the government stated that the gesture by a husband to force a wife to perform oral sex without her consent is definitely an act of cruelty and hence attracts charges under Section 498A of IPC.

On the other hand, the woman’s advocate Rajesh Shah insisted that since the man forced his wife to indulge in oral sex without her consent, it is nothing but rape, unnatural sex and domestic violence. He also opposed the petition filed by the man for quashing of the FIR lodged by his wife.

After the submissions by both sides were over, Justice J B Pardiwala reserved his judgment on the issue. The case involves a doctor couple in Sabarkantha district. The woman in question had filed a complaint stating that her husband forced her to perform ‘unnatural sex’.

She had also taken up the issue before her community elders, but people laughed at her.

