After a long preparation, the government is working to revise existing laws either to lower the minimum age for marriage or lessen the penalty for child marriage.

Concluding that the current age limit has only increased rape cases, the government is preparing to revise Child Act and the Criminal Code. The preparation to revise the legal provisions had started in 2022 when Govinda Koirala Bandi was the law minister arguing that there was no point in having 20 years as the minimum age of marriage while one gets citizenship at 16 and can cast a vote at 18.

Several lawmakers had sought to lower the age limit to 18. However, that couldn’t materialise. Three years later, the government is in the final stages of registering an amendment bill in Parliament to change the current laws.

“The government is working to register the bill in the ongoing session. We are in the final phase of discussions with medical and psychological experts,” Ajay Chaurasia, minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs, told the Post. “The 20-year limit is not suitable to our context, mainly in Madhesh and Karnali provinces.”

Explaining before the Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee of the House of Representatives on Sunday, Minister for Home Affairs Ramesh Lekhak said the government is giving a final touch to the amendment.

“The present age limit is not working. It needs to be lowered,” he said. “The government was working on two modalities. First, lower the minimum age or second, opt for the Romeo and Juliet law.”

The Romeo & Juliet law, which is in practice in various states in the United States of America, envisions creating an exception to statutory rape for two young people who do not have a large age gap. For instance, if the minimum age for marriage is 18, there can be consensual sex between the partners who don’t have an age gap more than two or three years. If an 18-year-old boy has consensual sex with a 15-year-old girl, it is not taken as rape as per the law.

The Criminal Code says a marriage is concluded or caused to be concluded only when the two parties have attained 20 years of age. “A person who flouts the law shall be liable to a sentence of imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years and a fine not exceeding Rs30,000,” says section 173 of the code.

Similarly, Criminal Procedure Code 2017 states that establishing sexual relationship with a girl under 18 years of age even with her consent is regarded as rape. Therefore, hundreds of boys who have love marriage or marriage in consent with girls below 18 have been charged with child marriage and rape.

“A Supreme Court’s verdict has also concluded that the present legal provisions are problematic,” said Chaurasiya.

Passing a verdict in the case of Santosh Kumar Yadav from Saptari in November 2022, the top court ruled that his marriage with an under-age girl was just a case of child marriage but not rape.

Yadav fell in love with a 15-year-old girl from Triyuga, Udayapur and married her in 2015. Following a complaint from the girl’s family, the police lodged child marriage, rape and abduction case against him. The Biratnagar High

Court sentenced him to six years of jail term and Rs50,000 in fines. However, the Supreme Court said as the marriage took place in mutual consent between the two, it was not a case of abduction or rape.

It just levied six months of imprisonment and a fine of Rs10,000 saying the penalty was necessary to discourage child marriage.

During Sunday’s meeting of the House committee, lawmakers supported the government’s plan to lower the minimum age limit.

“The current age limit is impractical,” said Ranju Jha, a member of the committee. “It needs to be lowered to 18 years.”