Allahabad High Court Bars Minor Wife From Living With In-Laws, Cites Risk of ‘Carnal Relations’ with Husband

The Allahabad High Court has refused to allow a 17-year-old girl, who is also a mother, to live with her mother-in-law, even though the latter was willing to take care of her and her baby, saying that the law does not permit a minor to cohabit with her adult husband.

Court opined that if it allowed the minor to live with her mother-in-law, there would be no way to ensure that there would be no carnal relations with her major husband, who has been arrested for the offence under Section 137(2) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), 2023, which penalises kidnapping.

The division bench of Justice J.J. Munir and Justice Sanjiv Kumar observed thus while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by the girl (‘A’) and her child. The petition sought their release from the Rajkeeya Bal Grih (Balika) in Kanpur Nagar, where they have been kept since July.

Petitioner ‘A’ got married to one Mukesh on July 3, 2025, when she was three months short of 17. A child was born to the couple on July 14. A's father then lodged a police complaint at Rasoolabad Police Station in Kanpur Dehat, leading to Mukesh’s arrest on July 22, 2025. On the same day, the girl was taken into custody and produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).

Before the CWC, she said she wanted to live with her husband and not with her parents, claiming her life would be in danger if she was sent back her parents' home. The CWC, however, directed that she be lodged at the Rajkeeya Bal Grih (Balika), where she has remained with her infant since then.

The petitioners’ counsel argued that the girl had married out of love and that her relationship with Mukesh was consensual. He relied on a 2011 Supreme Court decision (K.P. Thimmappa Gowda v. State of Karnataka) to claim that consensual relations with a girl above 16 were not rape.

The High Court rejected this argument, observing that the law was changed by the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, and now sexual intercourse with a woman under 18, with or without her consent, amounts to rape. Court further pointed out that Exception 2 to Section 375 IPC, which allowed marital sexual relations with a woman under 16, was read down by the Supreme Court in Independent Thought vs. Union of India and another (2017) and now the age of consent is 18 instead of 16. 

The bench also pointed out that permitting the minor to live with her husband or in-laws would not only violate the BNS but also expose the husband to prosecution under the POCSO Act, which strictly prohibits sexual contact with minors.

However, court took note of the girl’s condition as a young mother living with her newborn in custody. It allowed her mother-in-law to visit her regularly to offer emotional support but made it clear that she could not bring any food or other items during these visits.

Moreover, to ensure the girl and her baby’s well-being, the court issued a series of directions. It ordered the Chief Medical Officer, Kanpur Nagar, to ensure that a doctor and paediatrician attend to them at least twice a month or whenever needed. The District Judge, Kanpur Dehat, was also asked to appoint a lady judicial officer to visit the shelter twice every month to check on their health and living conditions and to report any violations to the High Court.

The bench stated that the girl would remain in the shelter home until she becomes a major, after which she will be free to choose where to live. “That liberty would come to the first petitioner on 05.10.2026; not earlier,” the judges said.