Early marriages take away self-esteem, confidence of girl child: Supreme Court

Apex court expresses concern over mass marriages on auspicious days, says such incidents can’t continue just because the practice was in vogue for a long time.
Supreme Court of India
Supreme Court of India

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ruled that sex with a minor wife — meaning a girl under 18 years of age — is a crime. The judgment has clarified that it does not want to delve into the issue of marital rape. But it may have opened a Pandora’s Box. From now on, regardless of religion, a marriage cannot be consummated if the wife is a minor.

According to government data, 46 percent of women in India aged between 18 and 29 are married before the age of 18. It is also estimated that there are about 23 million child brides in the country. The Supreme Court bench expressed concern over thousands of minor girls being married at mass wedding ceremonies on Akshaya Tritiya and observed that child marriages could not continue just because the practice was assumed to be legal and has been going on for ages.

The ruling came on a PIL that NGO Independent Thought filed, challenging the validity of the exception clause in the rape provision. However, the government defended the provision, citing the prevalence of child marriages and the prospect of making husbands vulnerable to being booked for rape.

“Surely, the Union of India cannot be oblivious to the existence of the trauma faced by a girl child who is married between 15 and 18 years of age or to the three pro-child statutes and other human rights obligations. That these facts and statutes have been overlooked confirms that the distinction is artificial and makes Exception 2 to Section 375 of the IPC all the more arbitrary and discriminatory,” the court observed.

The NGO had argued that the exception was a violation of the fundamental right to life and equality of minors. Observing that early marriages take away the self-esteem and confidence of a girl child, the bench said, “Under no circumstances can it be said that such a girl child lives a life of dignity. The right of a girl child to maintain her bodily integrity is effectively destroyed by a traditional practice sanctified by the IPC.”

“Marital rape of a girl child is effectively nothing but aggravated penetrative sexual assault and there is no reason why it should not be punishable under the provisions of the IPC. Therefore, it does appear that only a notional or linguistic distinction is sought to be made between rape and penetrative sexual assault and rape of a married girl child and aggravated penetrative sexual assault. There is no rationale for this distinction and it is nothing but a completely arbitrary and discriminatory distinction,” it held.
“Civil society can do so much for preventing such child marriages but eventually it is for the government of India and the state governments to take proactive steps to prevent child marriages,” the bench said.

Slogans must be backed by focused implementation: Supreme Court

Welfare schemes and “catchy slogans” are excellent for awareness campaigns but they must be backed by focused implementation programmes and remedial action for the betterment of the girl child, the Supreme Court said.

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The New Indian Express
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