The Supreme Court on Wednesday criminalised sex between a man and his underage wife provided the woman files a complaint within a year, a landmark order that fixes the age of consent at 18 for all girls. “If a minor wife complains of forced sexual intercourse within a year of marriage, police needs to take action,” the court said hearing a petition that called for scrapping of a provision in the rape law that allowed a man to have sex with his underage wife even without consent. The order also comes at a time when the court is hearing petitions calling for marital rape to be declared a crime. Defending the rape law exception, the government had told the court during an earlier hearing that India had 23 million child brides and criminalising the “consummation of the marriages” as rape would not be appropriate. In India rape and child marriage laws disagreed on age of consent.

Source: Hindustan Times October 11, 2017 05:28 UTC