Shashi Tharoor Introduces Bill To Criminalize Marital Rape at Lok Sabha

• 09 Dec 2025
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On 5 December 2025, Indian National Congress MP Shashi Tharoor introduced a private member’s bill at Lok Sabha amid the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament 2025. The bill seeks for criminalization of marital rape. It urges India to uphold the constitutional values and transition from the principle of “no means no” to “only yes means yes.”

According to Tharoor, the aim of the proposed amendment to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) is to remove the exception of marital rape and affirm that a woman’s right to consent cannot be overriden by marriage. He explained the reform as a need of the hour to protect the women’s bodily autonomy and dignity within marriage. 

The Congress MP, in a post on X, reaffirmed that marital rape is fundamentally an act of violence. It is not simply a matter of matrimonial relations. “India must uphold its constitutional values and move from ‘No Means No’ to ‘Only Yes Means Yes'. Every woman deserves the fundamental right to bodily autonomy and dignity within marriage, protections our legal system fails to provide,” Tharoor wrote on the social media platform. 

He added, “Marital rape is not about marriage but about violence. The moment for action has arrived.” The bill, according to Tharoor, seeks to reiterate that marriage cannot negate the woman’s right to grant or deny consent, in any manner whatsoever.

Apart from this bill, Tharoor introduced two additional private member’s bills at the Lok Sabha. One bill aims to amend the Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code of 2020 - one of the four labour codes. The second bill proposes the establishment of a State and Union Territories Reorganisation Commission to advise the central government on restructuring the boundaries of states and Union Territories.