Supreme Court grants bail to man accused of non-consensual, unnatural sex against wife

The Supreme Court on Monday suspended the sentence of a man accused of unnatural, non-consensual sex with his wife and granted him bail in the case after noting that certain financial transactions had happened between him and the wife. .A Bench of Justices AS Bopanna and PV Sanjay Kumar also noted that a settlement had apparently been entered into between the parties and even if the Court is not accepting the same, the financial transactions would have to be given weightage."What persuades us to consider the prayer is that, as already noted, the appellant and the respondent are husband and wife and even, at this moment, if we do not accept the settlement entered into between the parties, the fact remains that certain financial transactions were also involved and these are aspects which would be looked into subsequently," the bench observed.The Court clarified that the case was not that of a hardened criminal but the husband of the complainant."In a matter of the present nature, as we are not considering the suspension of sentence of a hardened criminal but, as already indicated, the appellant is the husband of the respondent, we deem it appropriate that the balance would tilt in favour of the appellant for grant of the prayer," the Court said. .A Sessions Court had acquitted the husband for rape and cruelty to wife, in the matter, but maintained his conviction for the offence of unnatural sex under Section 377 IPC and for voluntarily causing hurt. The Chhattisgarh High Court had in March refused to suspend his sentence and grant interim bail, leading to the instant appeal before the top court. The Supreme Court granted the relief sought upon noting that there had been a compromise between the parties since, as well as financial transactions. The bail was made subject to the terms and conditions of the trial court..Senior Advocates Mukul Rohtagi and Sidharth Luthra with Advocates Zulfiquar Memon, Parvez Memon, Vivek Jain, Mrinal Bharti, Swapnil Srivastava, Kush Agarwal, Manish Shekhari, Jayesh Srivastava and Sanjana Srivastava briefed by Mzm Legal Delhi LLP represented the husband. Senior Advocate Gagan Gupta and advocates Apoorva Bhumesh and Madhavi Khare appeared for the State of Chhattisgarh. Advocates Prashant Singh, Prerna Dhall and Piyush Yadav appeared for the wife.