India has made a significant change to its laws about rape. The Supreme Court has ruled that if a husband has sex with his wife and she is under 18, he is committing an act of rape.

Up until now rape was illegal, but there was one glaring exception. A wife could not bring charges of rape against her husband unless she was under age 15 — an age set in a 1940 law.

But using the age of 15 seemingly posed a contradiction with several other laws in India meant to protect girls under 18. For one thing, marriage to a bride under age 18 was made illegal in 1978. Previously there had been younger age cutoffs for child marriage.

Also, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act, enacted in 2012, states that minors do not have the right to consent to sex. So having a sex with a minor of any age would be a crime.

But the reality in India didn’t match the laws. Child marriage remains widespread to this day. And the contradiction between the age set in the 1940 law and subsequent laws was not addressed.

That’s what this new ruling does. On Wednesday, a two-member bench of the Supreme Court of India ruled that sex with any underage girl, even if she’s a bride, would be considered an act of rape. So child brides age 15 to 18 now have the same legal protection that younger girls do.