Supreme Court: The bench of Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta, JJ reserved the judgment in the issue relating to criminalising of forced sexual acts by the husband with his minor wife.
The Court was hearing the petition filed by NGO Independent Thought and Advocate Gaurav Agarwal, appearing for the NGO had contended before the Court that by the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, the age of consent for sexual intercourse by a girl, which was earlier 16 years has now been increased to 18 years, however, exception 2 to section 375 of the IPC still retains the age of consent as 15 years, due to which there is a huge gap of three years in the age of consent for a married girl child and an unmarried girl. He added that if the object behind increasing the age of consent to 18 years in 2013, was that a girl below that age is incapable of realising the consequences of her consent, then marriage of girl between the age of 15-17 years does not make the girl mature enough, mentally or physically, for the purpose of consent.
Taking note of the argument, the Court had, on 01.09.2017, sought to know whether it can create an offence by striking down the exception 2 of section 375 of IPC which the Parliament has refused to do. It also showed concern over the fate of the children born from such marriages if the provision was struck down. [Independent Thought v. Union of India, Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s). 382/2013, order dated 06.09.2017]