‘Marriage under personal law no exemption from criminal liability’: Delhi HC
In the present case, the woman was 16 and the man was 28 when they got married. In 2026, when the woman was around eight months pregnant
The Delhi High Court has ruled that a man must face trial under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for engaging in sexual relations with his minor wife. The court emphatically stated that personal laws cannot be used as a means to seek exemption from criminal liability under penal statutes.
The unique case presented before the court involved a husband and wife, both claiming to have been validly married under Muslim personal laws. However, the issue arose when the woman became eight months pregnant, leading to the police registering a criminal complaint, as the law does not recognize a minor's consent.
A bench of Justice Sanjeev Narula in his September 23rd verdict explained that while personal law determines the validity of a marriage and the associated civil consequences, it cannot provide an exception to criminal law. The court emphasized that the marriage, even if valid under Muslim personal law, does not grant immunity from POCSO and BNS for sexual intercourse with a wife below the age of eighteen.
It reiterated that a marriage does not alter the legal age of a person and cannot substitute "puberty" for the age of eighteen as fixed by the POCSO and BNS. The court also noted that the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, separately defines a female under eighteen as a child and attaches penal consequences to an adult male contracting a child marriage.
Written by urgent.news from Hindustan Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
