Sex with wife under 18 will be considered rape: Supreme Court

Agencies
October 11, 2017

New Delhi, Oct 11: In a sensational verdict, the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday ruled that sex with a wife who is under 18 years of age is rape and therefore a crime.

The top court did not rule on 'marital rape', which is sexual intercourse forced upon a spouse no matter what their age.

Before today's SC ruling, there was an exception in Section 375 rape law provisions that protected a man who had sexual relations with his wife even if she was under 18, which is the age of consent.

"Exception 2 in Section 375 of IPC (Indian Penal Code) granting protection to husband is violative of constitution and fundamental rights of minor bride', says Supreme Court.

The top court's verdict upholds the rights of 2.3 crore child brides in the country.

The SC rejected the plea of the Centre which justified the provision on the grounds that child marriage is a reality in the country and such marriage has to be protected.

A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur had on September 6 asked the Centre how Parliament could create an exception in a law when the age of consent is 18.

Also in September, the apex court had said it did not want to go into the aspect of marital rape, but when the age of consent was 18 years for "all purposes", why was such an exception made in the IPC.

Responding to the query, the Centre's counsel had said if this exception under the IPC goes, then it would open up the arena of marital rape+ which does not exist in India.

"Economic and educational development in the country is still uneven and child marriages are still taking place. It has been therefore decided to retain the age of 15 years under Exception 2 so as to give protection to husband and wife against criminalising the sexual activity between them. It is also estimated that there are 23 million child brides in the country. Hence, criminalising the consummation of a marriage with such a serious offence such as rape would not be appropriate and practical," the Centre had said.

As per the National Family Health Survey, 46 per cent of women between the ages of 18-29 years were married before the age of 18.
 

Comments

U NEED TO GO THRU STATISTICS... Many girls IN ANOTHER COMMUNITY are threatened and raped before they get to the marriage age from their own family members as well as the saints , most of them are in jails... 

PK
 - 
Thursday, 12 Oct 2017

Some community girls are used and misused by the men and the girl tolerates b4 the marriage. The drunken men alwz escape with cheddi culture by threatening the young girls and their parents.... Go thru the statistics... It is better to get married and take responsibility of the family if the girl is ready to marry.

 

Shareef
 - 
Thursday, 12 Oct 2017

Dear Prathima,

You said some communities like under age girls for..,  

see my sister, what difference does it make age below 18 to 15. Do they have more power than girls above 18. 

does girl become very old if she is above 18.  Above 18means usually it can go upto 28.

95% marriage of girls take place between 16-30

May God protect our girls and boys also.

 

Sharifaka
 - 
Wednesday, 11 Oct 2017

Only the girl can say if she has been raped or not

what about other religion girls starts having sex immediate after puberty? even some try when they enter  highschool.

MSMS
 - 
Wednesday, 11 Oct 2017

Listen carefully,  the above text says :

    "  Sex with a wife who is under 18yrs of  age is rape and therefore a crime. "

 

It interpretes as child marriage is invalid.

If the marriage is invalid how do they become wife and husband.

So this rule may does not applicable such wife.

 

Naresh
 - 
Wednesday, 11 Oct 2017

This law is not thought through. Judges need the input of psychologists to understand the behaviour of adolescents. There are teenagers today having relationships before 18. Are they going to throw them in jail?

Ibrahm
 - 
Wednesday, 11 Oct 2017

Ridiculous judgement. Marriage is society's way of allowing for the purpose of having children, since the married couple will then have to make the necessary sacrifices to bring up the children. If under 18 is statutory rape then why allow the marriage in the first place? The SC is coming up in many cases with foolish decisions that are against accepted norms and practices. The SC will risk making itself into an impotent body if it does not have a clue on how this is viewed by the people at large.

Unknown
 - 
Wednesday, 11 Oct 2017

Underage marriage is still practiced by muslims 

Stranger
 - 
Wednesday, 11 Oct 2017

Many pedophile worshipers belonging to a piece full community disguising as hindu are venting their anger against this judgement for reasons very well known to all. next we should ban all books / texts /manuals/biographies which eulogizes pedophiles/ pedophilia.

Prathima
 - 
Wednesday, 11 Oct 2017

Some community men like young underage girls for . We welcome the order.

Sreenath
 - 
Wednesday, 11 Oct 2017

Is its applicable only to Hindus or is it also applicable to Muslims? ..I see lot of them getting married at 15year 2 children by 18yrs..

Manish Raj
 - 
Wednesday, 11 Oct 2017

What if the wife does not tell the husband the correct age and inter course is consensual? Later on there is marital discord, can then it be considered as rape?

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News Network
June 4,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 4: All shops, offices, malls, commercial establishments and others in Karnataka must not allow Covid-stamped people to enter their premises before the completion of the prescribed quarantine time, said a top official on Wednesday.

"They should not allow those with quarantine stamp to enter before the end of their quarantine period or till they get current Covid negative test report," ordered Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar.

Bhaskar has also issued the order to all religious places, hotels and others to first check for quarantine stamp on all their customers or visitors before they enter the premises.

"All shops, commercial establishments, offices, factories, malls, religious places, hotels and etc.. are required to check for quarantine stamp on all their customers or visitors before they enter the premises," he said.

In the event of a violation, Bhaskar said the police should be informed at 100.

He issued the same order to the general public and resident welfare associations asking them to be vigilant.

"General public and resident welfare associations are advised to report any violation of the quarantine in their neighbourhood to the police at telephone number 100," said the chief secretary.

The orders came under the head aRole of general public, resident welfare associations and commercial establishments''.

General public, commercial establishments and resident welfare associations have been empowered to report quarantine violations at a time when many activities are set to reopen from June 8 as part of Unlock - 1, after more than two months of lockdown.

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News Network
January 23,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 23: City civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) levied a penalty of Rs 50,000 on the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) for using single-use plastic cups during the recent India-Australia one-day international match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

"Despite many awareness meetings, BBMP has found that single-use plastic cups were used during yesterday's cricket match and has fined KSCA Rs 50,000 as penalty," tweeted the civic body commissioner BH Anil Kumar.

The state cricket association treasurer Vinaya Mruthyunjaya said the civic body gave a general notice without detailed information on plastic use.

"We have been environmentally friendly for the last many years and at all gates, security has made sure no plastic or flex was allowed inside the stadium," Mruthyunjaya told media.

Mruthyunjaya said KSCA sought information from the civic body as to where the single-use plastic cups were found in the stadium during the India-Australia match.

On January 16, KSCA president Roger Binny inaugurated a plastic bottle shredder at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, in addition to other green initiatives at the cricket ground such as solar panels, sub-air system, biogas unit, rainwater harvesting and others. 

Similarly, in December 2019, BBMP cracked down on popular fast food eatery – Adyar Anand Bhavan in HSR Layout and fined the establishment Rs 1 lakh for plastic use.

In October, the BBMP fined eateries including McDonald's in central Bengaluru for using plastic.

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coastaldigest.com news network
June 25,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 25: The government of Kerala under the leadership of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is all set to launch the 'Kerala Dialogue' -- a debate series on new concepts and development models during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A series of visionaries including noted political thinker Noam Chomsky and Nobel-laureate economist Amartya Sen will join this unique initiative that is to be rolled out from Friday.

The debate series to be inaugurated by the CM will feature prominent personalities from various walks of life including scientists, philosophers, diplomats, economists, writers, journalists, activists, technocrats and people's representatives.

The first episode will have Chomsky, Sen and WHO Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan speaking on 'Kerala - Future Paths of Development'. 

State Planning Board vice chairman VK Ramachandran and senior journalist N Ram would be the moderators. The first episode would be telecast through the Chief Minister's official social media accounts.

The coming episodes in the series will also be telecast in the same manner. The government is of the view that the Kerala Dialogue series can ensure debates and dialogues on sustainable and inclusive development on the lines of the Kerala model.

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Lau Kin Chi
 - 
Friday, 26 Jun 2020

I am from Global University for Sustainability, with its executive team based in Hong Kong 

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