Allahabad High Court upholds uniform legal marriage age, says Shariat cannot override PCMA
The Allahabad High Court has held that the minimum age of marriage prescribed under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006, applies to all
The Allahabad High Court has held that the minimum age of marriage prescribed under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006, applies to all citizens irrespective of religion, observing that the Muslim personal law principle recognising puberty as the age of marriage cannot override the provisions of the Central law. The observations were made in a judgement pronounced on July 1 by a Division Bench of Justice J.J. Munir and Justice Achal Sachdev while hearing a writ petition seeking to quash an FIR registered against 19 people in connection with the alleged attempt to solemnise the marriage of a 16-year-old girl in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh in February this year.
The girl was later rescued by the Childline and police personnel, who were allegedly assaulted by her relatives. The petitioners argued that under the Muslim personal law, a girl who has attained puberty—generally presumed at the age of 15—is competent to marry, and that the PCMA does not override the Shariat. They also relied on provisions of the Indian Majority Act, 1875, and the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937. The Bench acknowledged that High Courts across the country have taken divergent views on whether marriages involving Muslim minors are governed by Muslim personal law or by the PCMA, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
However, it agreed with the reasoning adopted by the Kerala High Court in Moidutty Musliyar v. Sub Inspector, Vadakkencherry Police Station case, which held that personal law cannot override the statutory prohibition on child marriage or dilute the operation of the POCSO Act. “The age of marriage, in our considered opinion, for every citizen of the country, irrespective of religion, is that which is spelt out by the PCMA,” the court said. It added that permitting the marriage of a person below 18 years would be inconsistent with the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which criminalises sexual relations with a child. “The PCMA and the POCSO Act are statutes that are based on public health and national policy in this regard.
They have a scientific understanding to them, legislatively translated into prohibitory statutes, and there can be no escape from it for anyone,” the court added. Holding that the police and Childline officials were acting within the scope of their statutory duties under the PCMA to prevent a possible violation of the POCSO Act, the HC refused to quash the FIR. “.... the Shariat law providing for puberty as the competent age for a girl to marry or be married runs clearly in the teeth of the PCMA as well as the POCSO Act,” the court added.
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