The Indian government has opposed petitions in the top court that seek criminalisation of marital rape, saying it would be "excessively harsh".

The federal home ministry told the Supreme Court that "a man does not have a fundamental right" to force sex on his wife, but there were enough laws to protect married women against sexual violence.

The top court is hearing petitions seeking to amend a British-era law that says a man cannot be prosecuted for rape within marriage.

Violence within marriage is rampant in India - according to a recent government survey, one in 25 women have faced sexual violence from their husbands.

Marital rape is outlawed in more than 100 countries, including Britain which criminalised it in 1991.

But India remains among the three dozen countries - along with Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia - where the law remains on the statute books.

A number of petitions have been filed in recent years calling for striking down Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, which has been in existence since 1860. The law mentions several "exemptions" - or situations in which sex is not rape - and one of them is "by a man with his own wife" if she is not a minor.

Campaigners say such an argument is untenable in modern times and that forced sex is rape, regardless of who commits it.