New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved verdict on petitions to declare the exception provided in Section 375 IPC, excluding intercourse with a minor girl involved in child marriage as an offence, as unconstitutional.
A bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Naveen Gupta, reserved verdict at the conclusion of arguments from the senior counsel for the Centre, Rana Mukherjee and counsel for the petitioners seeking court intervention to remove the anomaly.
The Centre cautioned the court from treading into the issue of ‘marital rape’ as that was not the issue before the court.
The petitions related to conflict between the IPC — which terms children as those aged under 15 years — and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) — which terms children as those aged under 18.
It was submitted that there was an anomaly, viz, those who are not married and for them, the age of sexual consent is 18. Then there are those who are married and a husband can have sexual intercourse with his wife if she is above the age if 15, irrespective of her consent.
