Marriage is no license to "provide special male privilege or a license for unleashing a brutal beast", said the Karnataka High Court while refusing to drop rape charges framed by a trial court against a man for his wife's alleged sexual assault.

"The institution of marriage does not confer, cannot confer and should not be construed to confer, any special male privilege or a license for unleashing of a brutal beast," said a single-judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna of the Karnataka High Court said.