The Supreme Court passed a landmark judgement on Wednesday 11 October in which it declared that sex between a man and his underage wife would be considered rape.
The apex court said that Exception 2 to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) – which exempted marital rape of girls between the age of 15 and 18 from the purview of rape – is violative of Article 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution.
India earlier had different laws for rape and marriage on the basis of age, effectively allowing men to have sex with girls under the age of consent if they were married to them. Some people have shared anecdotes on this reddit thread that discusses the recent judgement.
“Parents will get her married against her will”
“It was considered normal”
“We’re Ukrainian”
“My Grandfathers were rapists”
Apart from these anecdotes, the thread also had come interesting comments about the judgement.
“It’s called marital rape”
“Legal to rape wife?”
“Difficult to pull off in India”
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)