Supreme Court verdict on exception to rape law likely today

The petitioners prayed that the clause be struck down as it is “violative of Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution”.
Hearing the plea, the court had asked the Centre how Parliament could create such an exception in law. The apex court, however, clarified that it did not want to go into the aspect of marital rape, but asked why such an exception was created when the age of consent was 18 years for “all purposes”.

The Centre replied that doing away with this exception would open up the arena of marital rape, which does not exist in India. The Centre’s counsel had referred to the concept of age of puberty among Muslims for the purpose of marriage and said these aspects have been deliberated upon by Parliament before arriving at a conclusion.

The petitioners also contended that the exception clause went against the objectives of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act and was also in violation of international conventions to which India was a signatory.