DELHI HIGH COURT RULES MARRIAGE BETWEEN TWO MINORS AS VALID
12.08.2010 (UNI) The Delhi High Court held the marriage between two minors as valid stating that it can only be annulled if one of them seeks to do so.
A bench comprising Justices B D Ahmed and V K Jain said even under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, the marriage involving minors has not been declared as invalid and the Act just says that the marriage can be annulled on this ground if plea is made by the minor partner.
Clarifying the law, the Court said ‘a marriage in contravention of clause (iii) of section 5 (which fixes minimum age of 21 years for bridegroom and 18 years for bride) does not fall in the category of void marriages nor does it fall in the category of voidable marriages. Consequently, by the process of elimination, it would be a valid marriage.’ The Court’s ruling came while allowing a couple of Ghaziabad where the boy (18) and the girl (16) fled their homes and tied the knot.
The Court also ordered police protection to the couple as parents of both sides were opposed to the marriage.
The boy against whom a criminal case was registered by the parents of the girl for abducting her, approached the HC for quashing the case against him and providing him police protection.
The court held, ‘It is clear that where, earlier, a child marriage may not have been voidable under personal law, as in the case of the Hindu Marriage Act, by virtue of the Section 3 of the Prohibition of Child marriage Act, it has explicitly been made voidable at the option of the child spouse. But nobody other than a party to the marriage can petition for annulment of the marriage.’ ‘The legislature while drafting the provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act had consciously left out marriages in contravention of the age stipulation from the category of void or invalid marriages,’ the court said.
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