The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that sex with one’s wife aged between 15 and 18 years would be a punishable offence under the Indian Penal Code. The apex court said an exception in the rape law is discriminatory, capricious and arbitrary.

The top court also expressed concern over the practice of child marriage, saying social justice laws are not implemented with the spirit they had been enacted in.

“The exception in rape law under the IPC is contrary to other statutes, violates bodily integrity of girl child,” the bench said. It, however, clarified that it has not dealt with the issue of marital rape.

[embeddoc url=”http://legaldesire.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/17790_2013_Judgement_11-Oct-2017.pdf” height=”800px”]