The Mumbai High Court has ruled that sexual intercourse with a minor woman on the basis of her consent will be considered as rape. As a matter of law, consent in this case will not be admissible as an argument for validity.
A man appealed against the lower court's sentence of 10 years imprisonment in a rape case filed by his wife. At the end of the hearing Nagpur bench judge G. A. SANAP dismissed the appeal and upheld the lower court's sentence last Tuesday.
Justice Sanap said sexual intercourse with any girl below 18 years of age, whether married or not, is considered rape under the law.
According to the details of the case, the accused was a neighbor of the plaintiff in Warda, Maharashtra. He got pregnant because he had forced sex with the girl before marriage. Later they got married. But the girl filed a case against her husband in May 2019 for denying the paternity of the child.
After the trial of that case, on September 9, 2021, the judicial court of Warda district found him guilty of rape and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. The convicted person appealed to the High Court seeking annulment of the verdict.
According to the case documents, the girl was in a 'love relationship' with the man for 3-4 years before the complaint. However, the girl has always refused the offer of sexual relations. But at one point he forced her to have sex. As a result, the girl became pregnant.
The girl alleged that the convict first promised marriage. Later, a 'marriage play' was arranged in a rented house in the presence of some neighbors. But then the convict started physically assaulting him. He also continued to push for abortion. At one point, he denied paternity and alleged that he was not the father of the unborn child, but someone else.
The convict defended himself in the High Court saying that the woman was his wife and had sexual intercourse with his consent.
Justice Sanap said, 'In my opinion, this statement is not acceptable for several reasons. It is proved that the victim was under 18 years of age on the date of commission of the crime. Besides, the DNA test showed that the accused person and the female victim are the biological parents of the child born.
