Karnataka was first to make child marriage void in April

BENGALURU: While the Supreme Court recently criminalized sexual relations between a man and his minor wife, it lauded the passage of an amendment by the Karnataka legislature in April 2017, which declared all future child marriages void.
On October 11, the apex court ruled that Exception 2 of Section 375 of Indian Penal Code which exempts husbands of minor wives (aged 15-18 years) from the charge of rape cannot be held.This is in direct contravention to section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act which states that a man may be charged with aggravated penetrative sexual assault of his wife, if she is aged below 18, with it being defined in the same way as rape.
The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Karnataka Amendment) Act, 2016 passed in April 2017 declared all marriages between minors void.
Recognizing the state for its pioneering efforts, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta praised the Karnataka legislature for taking cognizance of an important issue and reconciling the conflict between contesting and contradictory laws.
“..Therefore, any marriage of a child, ie. a female aged below 18 years and a male below 21 years is void ab initio in the state of Karnataka. This is how the law should have been throughout the country. Where the marriage is void, there cannot be a husband or a wife and I have no doubt that protection of Exception 2 to Section 375 IPC cannot be availed of by those persons who claim to be “husband” of “child brides” pursuant to a marriage which is illegal and void,” observed Justice Lokur.
Jayna Kothari, executive director of Centre for Law and Policy Research (CLPR), who presented the arguments before SC on behalf of Child Rights Trust (CRT), said: “The petitioners, Independent Thought, a national human rights organization, challenged Exception 2 on the grounds of lack of uniformity between laws. There were three key observations made by the bench of justices. An sexual intercourse in a marriage when the participants are minors is rape as it contradicts other laws like Pocso. Secondly, it (the verdict) protects the bodily rights of minor married girls and also asks other states to take note of the precedent set in Karnataka,” said Jayna. It is time for state governments to draw an action plan and send out a strong message to deter people as the threat of prosecution is real, she added.
Vasudev Sharma of Child Rights Trust said all laws relating to this matter had to be re-examined, and this was a call to all NGO workers and welfare organizations to collaborate for this cause and raise awareness.