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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coastaldigest.com news network
July 2,2020

Mangaluru, Jul 2: A frontline covid-19 warrior who was working in the Wenlock Covid hospital in the city has been tested positive for the coronavirus. 

Sources said that he was a pathologist working in covid testing laboratory of the Wenlock Covid hospital.

A few days ago, a senior health official had tested positive for the covid-19.

Dakshina Kannada has so far recorded deaths of 18 covid-19 patients. A total of 14,137 samples have been tested, out of which 13,040 have turned out negative, and 833 positive, including 10 persons from other districts. 372 cases are currently active.

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News Network
March 6,2020

New Delhi, Mar 6: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea seeking framing of a proper mechanism to deal with alleged misuse of the sedition law by the government machinery. A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar dismissed the plea filed by a social activist and said it was open for the petitioner to approach the appropriate authority.

At the outset, the apex court told advocate Utsav Singh Bains, appearing for the petitioner, that he could not seek quashing of an FIR in a sedition case filed against the management of a Karnataka school for allegedly allowing students to stage an anti-CAA and anti-NRC drama.

Bains told the bench that he was not just pressing for a prayer to quash the FIR but the petitioner has also sought a direction for framing of a proper mechanism to deal with the alleged misuse of the sedition law.

"Let the affected party come and we will hear them. Why it should be done at your instance," the bench said, refusing to entertain the petition.

The petition had sought quashing of the FIR against the principal and other staff of the Shaheen School at Bidar who have been booked under sections 124A (sedition) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) of the Indian Penal Code.

The plea had also sought an apex court direction for a proper mechanism to deal with alleged government misuse of the sedition law.

Section 124A of the IPC says that "whoever brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards... the Government shall be punished with imprisonment for life...".

The plea had sought a direction to the Centre and the Karnataka government "to quash the FIR registered in connection of seditious charges against the school management, teacher and a widowed parent of a student for staging a play criticising CAA, NRC and NPR."

The petition had claimed that the police "also questioned students, and videos and screenshots of CCTV footage showing them speaking to the students were shared widely on social media, prompting criticism."

The drama was staged on January 21 by students of the fourth, the fifth and the sixth standard.

The sedition case was filed based on a complaint by social worker Neelesh Rakshyal on 26 January.

The complainant alleged that the school authorities "used" the students to perform a drama where they "abused" Modi in the context of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens.

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News Network
July 28,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 27: Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka crossed the grim milestone of one lakh Covid-19 cases while Tamil Nadu logged nearly 7,000 fresh infections for the third straight day on Monday as the sharp spike in recent weeks continued unabated in the southern states.

Kerala's tally inched toward the 20,000-mark and Telangana saw the total infection count beach the 55,000-mark while the cumulative cases rose to 2,872 in the tiny union territory of Puducherry as the six together added 20,629 fresh cases and their aggregate shot to 5.02 lakh.

A total of 291 deaths were reported on Monday from these states with Tamil Nadu accounting for the maximum of 77 closely followed by Karnataka with 74 fatalities, according to bulletins issued by respective states.

The cases have been rising in the region since last month when the lockdown norms were eased and thousands of people returned even as testing had been given a push.

The worst-hit was Andhra Pradesh where the Covid-19 count doubled in just eight days as the day's 6,051 cases pushed the tally to 1,02,349. It had crossed the 50,000-mark on July 20.

East Godavari district registered a high of 1,210 cases. After 16,86,446 tests were completed on Monday, the Covid-19 positivity rate in the state shot past the 6 per cent mark, a record high.

From 15,252 confirmed cases on July 1, the number swelled to the current level as every district in the state has been witnessing a severe surge in the pandemic.

The toll rose to 1,090 with 49 fresh deaths. The state now has 51,701 active cases after a total of 49,558 patients had recovered, a bulletin said.

Covid-19 cases in Karnataka spiralled to 1,01,465 as the state reported the biggest single-day spike of 5,324 new infections and 75 fatalities, taking the death toll to 1,953, the health department said.

The day also saw 1,847 patients getting discharged, taking the cumulative recoveries to 37,685.

Tamil Nadu reported highest single-day spike of 6,993 cases, taking the tally to 2,20,716 while 77 deaths propelled the toll to 3,571.

The state has added 45,038 cases since last Monday while the active cases stood at 54,896 and recoveries touched 1,62,249, including 5,723 people discharged today.

Chennai accounted for 95,857 cases of the state's tally.

In Kerala, at least 43 health workers were among the 702 people who tested positive while 745 others recovered, as the state's total infection tally touched 19,727.

The death toll climbed to 63 with two more fatalities from Kozhikode and Kottayam districts, while 9,611 people were presently under treatment, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.

A total of 10,054 patients have recovered so far and over 1.55 lakh people were under observation, he told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram.

Telangana's total infection count rose to 55,532 with the addition of 1,473 cases, including 506 from Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) areas, a government bulletin said on Monday, providing data as of 8 pm on Sunday.

With eight more deaths, the Covid-19 toll in the state rose to 471. The death rate was 0.85 per cent as against 2.3 per cent in the country, it said.

As many as 42,106 people have recovered from the infection so far, while 12,955 were under treatment.

Puducherry logged 86 new cases, pushing the overall tally to 2,872 and the toll increased to 43 with three more deaths. It has 1,109 active cases, an official statement said.

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