In a child marriage case a 22-year old man who tied the knot with a “minor” girl landed behind the bars with police arresting him within hours of the wedding on the charge of child marriage in the district today.
Besides the bridegroom, the father and mother of the 15-year old girl, studying seventh standard in the municipal school, were also arrested for arranging the child marriage, police said.
The man married the girl with the consent of her parents at a temple in Muthunaickenpatty in Rasipuram.
Acting on a tip-off, police and revenue officials rushed to the temple, arrested the newly wed bridegroom and the girl’s parents under Prevention of Child Marriage Act.
IPC Sec 375 : Exception “reads: S*xual intercourse with own wife ; the wife not being under 15 years of age is not rape”.
This presumes that the marriage might have been solemnised any time the bride attained the age of 15.
So long this exception to IPC Sec 375 remains on the statute book, the 22 year young man in the temple may not have committed much of a crime. The age difference being normally acceptable, the fact though not very desirable should have been covered under the umbrella of “FACTUM VALET”
Anand
amateur legal research