New Delhi, October 11: A public interest litigation was filed in the apex court seeking to allow a bride below 18 years of age to file an FIR if she’s forced to have physical relationship. The PIL had demanded that such acts should be treated as rape.
The Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta expressed concern over practice of child marriage, saying social justice laws had not been implemented with the spirit they were enacted.
Justice Gupta said that the age of marriage was 18 in all laws and the exception given in the rape law under the IPC is capricious, arbitrary and violates the rights of a girl child adding that the exception is violative of Article 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution.
It asked the Centre and the states to take proactive steps to prohibit child marriage across the country.
The court has clarified that the ruling is not in connection with the issue of marital rape.9Agency inputs)
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