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Exception 2 to Section 63 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 states: "Sexual intercourse or sexual…

In Independent Thought v. Union of India (2017), the Supreme Court read down the marital exception (formerly Exception 2 to Section 375 IPC) so that sexual intercourse by a…

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Exception 2 to Section 63 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 states: "Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under eighteen years of age, is not rape." This eighteen-year age threshold gives statutory effect to the rule laid down by the Supreme Court in 2017 in the case of:

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In Independent Thought v. Union of India (2017), the Supreme Court read down the marital exception (formerly Exception 2 to Section 375 IPC) so that sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife under eighteen years of age was not exempted from the offence of rape, harmonising the penal law with the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and Articles 14, 15(3), and 21 of the Constitution. Exception 2 to Section 63 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 directly codifies this wording by specifying "the wife not being under eighteen years of age."

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