New Delhi/UNI: The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Centre's response by Feb 15 on a bunch of petitions seeking criminalisation of marital rape, as the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for the Union of India said that apart from legal, the matter would have social repercussions..

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chadrachud and also comprising Justices P S Narasimha, and JB Pardiwala, asked the Union Government's senior lawyer, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta to file the Centre's detailed reply onto the batch of petitions filed before it.

The apex court said it will hear the matter next in March.

The top court decided to take up the matter instead of letting different high courts take a call.

One petition is against the Karnataka High Court judgement, which declined to quash the charge of rape against a man accused of raping and keeping his wife as a sex slave.