New Delhi: The Supreme Court, In a landmark judgment, on Wednesday, in a historic decision, Sex with Minor wife, aged between 15 and 18 years is Rape and said that the exception in the rape law was arbitrary and violation of the constitution. The Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, which defines the crime of rape, has an exception clause, which is not less than 15 years, sex with his wife or sex acts, is not a rape. However, the age of consent is 18 years.
The Supreme Court said that the exception in the rape law was contrary to the philosophy of other methods and violates the physical integrity of a girl. A bench, before Justice Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta, also expressed concern over the prevailing customs of child marriage in the country and said that social justice law has not been enforced by those sentiments which have been enacted by the Parliament. The bench clarified that it has not dealt with the issue of marital rape because it was not picked up by the respective parties in this regard.
The Justice Gupta, who wrote a separate but concurrent verdict, said that in all the laws, the age of marriage was 18 years and the exceptions given in the rape law under the IPC “The brain is arbitrary and violates the rights of the girl.” The Supreme Court said that the exceptions to Article 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution violated. The court asked the Center and states to take an active step to restrict child marriage across the country. On the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya, this concern was expressed in the marriage of thousands of little girls in mass marriage ceremonies.
The court had already reserved the judgment on how the central government can create an exception in the law about any sexual intercourse or a sexual act with his wife under the age of 15 years. How to create an exception, when age consent is 18 years. The Supreme Court also found that child marriage cannot be done in such a way that these illegal acts are considered legal and it has been going on for many years.
The petitioner is seeking the direction of announcing the exception 2 for IPC Section 375, because of the violation of article 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution; it permits sexual intercourse with a girl between the ages of 15 to 18 years. The ground is that she has been married. “One of the petitioners argued that Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code was defeated with the purpose of the prohibition of the Child Marriage Act and international conventions were also violated, for which India was a signatory and also referred to the provisions of POCSO Act and said that these are against the IPC provision.