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
March 4,2020

Bhopal, Mar 4: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister  Kamal Nath on Tuesday asserted that there was no threat to his government.

Nath's comments came when he was asked about reports of alleged 'poaching' attempts being made by the opposition BJP in the state.

“The legislators are telling me that they are being offered so much money. I am telling the MLAs to take it, if they are getting this free money,” Nath told reporters here on the sidelines of a programme.

Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh on Monday alleged that his party MLAs were being offered “huge money by BJP leaders” as part of the saffron party's “poaching” attempt to destablise the Kamal Nath government.

When Nath was asked about any threat to the stability of his government in Madhya Pradesh, he said, “There is nothing to worry about.”

Reacting to Nath's statement, state BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal told PTI that his party has nothing to do with the allegations.

“In fact, these speculations and allegations are part of the internal bickering of among Congress leaders to get nominated for the Rajya Sabha polls,” he said.

After Digvijaya Singh's remarks on Monday, senior BJP leader and former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan accused the Congress veteran of making false statements to create sensationalism.

“Speaking lies to create sensationalism is Digvijaya's habit. Probably some of his (Digivijaya's) works were not done and he wants to create pressure on the CM to get them done,” Chouhan alleged.

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News Network
June 19,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 18: Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah has accused the BJP-led government of not passing the benefit of the low price of crude to the common man and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take steps to bring down prices of petroleum products.

Hitting out at the BJP-led government, he termed it as "opportunistic" and said the price of petroleum products were being increased when people were facing difficulties due to COVID-19.

"It is very disheartening to witness and unprecedented opportunistic government which is trying to extract every pound and flesh from the common man, that too when the whole country is suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic. This is in the backdrop of the continuous price hike in the last 10 days," said the letter was written on Wednesday.

The Congress leader said that the policy decisions taken by the government "with respect to managing fuel sources are inconsistent with the prudent measures generally adopted".

"When the price of crude oil was remarkably low in March, April and May 2020, your government was very reluctant to pass on the benefits to the people by reducing the fuel prices proportionately, but, instead, your government continued to capitalise by increasing the excise duty," he said.

He said the government had also "failed" in the last six years to increase the oil storage capacity which could have been used for the country's advantage when the international crude oil price fell really low.

He said the government should roll back the excise duty and help in the reduction of fuel prices.

"The reduced burden will help the common man to have additional money in hand that will be spent on essential goods and services which will ultimately help them tide over these difficult times," he said.

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News Network
June 16,2020

New Delhi, Jun 16: With an increase of 10,667 cases and 380 deaths in the past 24 hours, the COVID-19 count in India has reached 3,43,091 on Tuesday, according to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry.

It is noteworthy that today's spike in cases is lower than the 11,502 registered in the country yesterday and has also stayed below the 11 thousand mark it had been crossing for the past two days in a row.

However, there is an increase in the number of deaths due to the infection from yesterday, with 380 deaths being reported from across the country, the toll due to COVID-19 has now reached 9,900.

The COVID-19 count includes 1,53,178 active cases, while 1,80,013 patients have been cured and discharged or migrated so far.

Maharashtra with 1,10,744 cases continues to be the worst-affected state in the country with 50,567 active cases while 56,049 patients have been cured and discharged in the state so far. The toll due to COVID-19 has crossed the four thousand mark and reached 4,128 in the state.
It is followed by Tamil Nadu with 46,504 and the national capital with 42,829 confirmed cases.

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