SC Rejects Plea Challenging Validity of 16-year-old Muslim Girl’s Marriage
Supreme Court Dismisses Plea Against 16-Year-Old Muslim Girl’s Marriage: The Supreme Court has reprimanded the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and dismissed the petition filed against the approval given by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to the marriage of a Muslim girl under the age of 16. The bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice R Mahadevan said that the NCPCR has no right to file a petition in this matter.
Hearing on Tuesday, the Supreme Court dismissed the special leave petition filed by NCPCR. This petition challenged the 2022 decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which said that a 16-year-old Muslim girl can legally marry a Muslim man, and the couple was provided protection from threats.
The court reprimanded NCPCR
The court reprimanded NCPCR and said that how can you challenge the order of the High Court in the Supreme Court, when the High Court has protected two minor children. They said that filing a petition on behalf of NCPCR is a shocking step.
‘The case of the POCSO Act and kidnapping does not stand.’
In the last hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had said that different High Courts are giving different decisions on this. On which the CJI had said that this matter will be settled soon. In the last hearing, the court had said that, in the Muslim religion, marriage is considered valid after sexual maturity, and in such a case, of POCSO Act and kidnapping do not stand against the petitioner.
Challenge to the Punjab and Haryana HC decision
NCPCR had challenged the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and said that the age of 18 years has been fixed under the POCSO Act for having physical relations. In such a situation, the decision of the Punjab Haryana High Court is against the law, which does not allow the marriage of a 16-year-old girl. The High Court had said in its order that we do not want to go into the matter of the girl’s age right now because it is the job of the trial court to decide this. In such a situation, the High Court rejected the anticipatory bail plea, refusing any relief to the petitioner for the time being.
The minor had recorded his statement before the magistrate
In fact, in 2024, the minor had recorded a statement before the magistrate, in which she said that she did not want to go with her parents. Considering her age, she was sent to a children’s home. The petitioner had told the High Court that, according to the ossification test conducted in a private diagnostic center in January this year, the girl is an adult.
The Haryana government presented the school record of the minor, according to which the girl was born in March 2008, and thus her age is 15 years and 9 months. The petitioner said that he had married the victim with her consent.
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