Indian court, in 2005 case verdict, declares sex with minor wife is not rape

A high court in India's Uttar Pradesh, while hearing a case of 2005, declared that having sex with a minor wife is not a crime. The judgment was made while overturning the conviction of a man in a 2005 case where a man allegedly kidnapped and raped a minor. The Allahabad High Court said that the man married the minor girl and solemnised it when she was 16. And the act is not a crime under Muslim Personal Law, and the sexual relationship was not punishable under the law applicable at the time of the offence.

Justice Anil Kumar set aside the trial court’s 2007 decision, which had sentenced the appellant to seven years of rigorous imprisonment under Sections 363, 366, and 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

While the victim’s father alleged she was enticed away, the girl admitted during cross-examination that she left her home voluntarily to accompany the appellant. She claimed that she travelled with the man and married him, after which they lived as a married couple for a month in Bhopal.

“In the foregoing circumstances it can be safely concluded that prosecution has failed to lead any evidence to suggest that victim was either ‘enticed’ or ‘taken’ by appellant," the court declared.

“Therefore, appellant cannot be held guilty for the commission of rape because the victim at the time of occurrence was above 16 years and physical relations between the two had taken place after solemnisation of their marriage," the judgment added.