THE NEED FOR ABOLISHING RESTITUTION OF CONJUGAL RIGHTS IN INDIA: LOOKING THROUGH A CONSTITUTIONAL SCRUTINY
AUTHOR – SUMATI NARAYAN, LLM STUDENT, GUJARAT NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY
BEST CITATION – SUMATI NARAYAN, THE NEED FOR ABOLISHING RESTITUTION OF CONJUGAL RIGHTS IN INDIA: LOOKING THROUGH A CONSTITUTIONAL SCRUTINY, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 6 (1) OF 2026, PG. 01-07, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.
Abstract
This article critically interrogates the current impulse of restitution of conjugal rights (hereinafter ‘RCR’) which is a matrimonial remedy forming a part of significant social reality in India. The doctrine of RCR provides the deserted spouse to seek courts’ intervention in realizing his/her right to consortium against the deserting spouse. Although RCR might be beneficial in encouraging spouses to reconcile and resolve their differences for saving their marriage, it however, violates the right to bodily integrity, sexual autonomy, dignity, privacy, agency, individual choice, and consent for domestic pleasures of a legally married individual. The objective of the paper is to raise voice towards the abolition of RCR from India as the cruel clutches of RCR induces unwanted anxiety among the spouses who do not wish to stay together in the marital bond. The article argues for abolition of RCR in India by unravelling the rich and complicated history of RCR’s application by the Indian judiciary system against a long trajectory connected with the evolving nature of the constitutional principles of dignity, equality and liberty. It further analyses how the abolition of RCR from the jurisdiction of commonwealth countries across the world has perpetuated the affirmative quest of abolishing RCR from the Indian society. A suggestive provision comprising of reconciliation for replacing RCR has been suggested in the last segment of the paper with the hope that the advantages of alternative disputes resolution are being recognized for marital discord.
Keywords: Restitution of conjugal rights (RCR), constitutionality, privacy, sexual autonomy, bodily integrity, equality, Constitution of India, marriage