New Delhi, Dec. 12 -- Senior Congress leader and former diplomat Shashi Tharoor expressed profound shock on Thursday that India remains one of the few democracies globally where the issue of marital rape is not treated with the seriousness it warrants.

"I am shocked to find that India is one of the few democracies in the world where the case of a husband raping his wife without her consent is not treated with the seriousness as it should have been," Tharoor said at an event in Kolkata.

Tharoor noted that while the country possesses robust, stringent anti-rape legislation, the current law includes an exception for husbands, which he condemned as effectively granting legal immunity for non-consensual sexual acts within a marriage. He argu...