Sex with minor wife is rape: Centre unlikely to challenge order

The thinking within the government is that such an order would lead to the decrease in child marriages.

The government is unlikely to challenge the Supreme Court's order which had criminalised having sex with a minor wife. The SC had earlier this week ruled that sex with a wife below the age of 18 amounts to rape.

There is a herculean task that awaits both the Centre and the States to implement this order. However many within the legal department feel that this order would discourage child marriages and hence challenging it would not be the right thing to do.

The thinking within the government is that such an order would lead to the decrease in child marriages. With awareness being spread against child marriages, there is already a decline.

The percentage of women in the 14-20 age group married as minors has come down from 47 per cent in 2006 to 26 in 2016.

OneIndia News