“A court decree enforcing restitution of conjugal rights constitutes the starkest form of governmental invasion of personal identity and individual’s zone of intimate decisions. The victim is stripped of its control over the various parts of its body subjected to the humiliating sexual molestation accompanied by a forcible loss of the precious right to decide when if at all her body should be allowed to be used to give birth to another human being. Clearly the victim loses its autonomy of control over intimacies of personal identity. Above all the decree for restitution of conjugal right makes the unwilling victim’s body a soulless and a joyless vehicle for bringing into existence another human being. In other words, pregnancy would be foisted on her by the state and against her will …. A wife who is keeping away from her husband, because of permanent or even temporary estrangement cannot be forced, without violating her right to privacy to bear a child by her husband. During a time when she is probably contemplating an action for divorce, the use and enforcement of section 9 of the Act (Hindu Marriage Act, 1955) against the estranged wife can irretrievably alter the position by ringing about forcible conception permanently reining her mind, body and life and everything connected with it. During a moment’s duration the entire life style would be altered and would be destroyed without her consent. If that situation made possible by this matrimonial remedy is not to be a violation of individual dignity and right of privacy guaranteed by our constitution and more particularly Article 21, it is not conceivable what also could be a violation of Article 21 of our constitution. ……. Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 should be declared as unconstitutional, for the reason that the remedy of restitution of conjugal right provided for by that section is a savage and barbarous remedy, violating the right to privacy and human dignity guaranteed by Article 21 of our constitution.”(Hon'ble Justice P.A. Choudary, T.Sareetha V/s. T. Venkata Subbaiah, AIR 1983 Andhra Pradesh 356 at page 370 and 373).
