By our Legal Correspondent
Mumbai: The High Court of Bombay’s Nagapur Bench has affirmed that sexual intercourse with a minor aged below 18 years, whether consensual or not, amounted to the offence of rape.
The defense of ‘consensual intercourse with wife’ cannot be accepted under the law, observed the Single Judge of the Nagapur Bench, Justice Govind A Sanap , while upholding the ten-year sentence imposed on a 24-lyear-old man, arrested in 2019 on a complaint of rape filed by his wife.
A sessions court had convicted him on rape charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Indian Penal code.
“In view of the law laid down by the Supreme Court, the argument that intercourse by appellant (the accused) with the victim being his wife would not constitute rape, cannot be accepted said the Justice Sanap in the order passed by him on Nov 12.
It is the reversal of the Supreme Court’s ruling in this regard, the legal experts here said.
