Plea Filed in Supreme Court Seeking Uniform Age for Boys and Girls, Urge to End Discrimination in Age of Marriage Between Men & Women.
(Judicial Quest News Network)
A plea has been filed before Supreme Court challenging the vires of the section 5(iii) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, Section 4© of the Special Marriage Act, 1954, Section 2(a) of the prohibition of Child Marriage Act,2006, Section 60(1) of the Indian Christian Marriage Act,1936 which prescribe for eligible age for marriage for the intended bride and groom to be at least eighteen years and twenty-one years respectively.
The challenge to the above-mentioned provisions is broadly on the following grounds: –
(i) The present legal framework, that allows girls to marry at 18 years of age and boys at 21 years of age, amongst various other flaws, also aggravates the gender inequality that exists within a marital relationship. The distinction is based on patriarchal stereotypes, has no scientific backing, perpetrates de jure and de facto inequality against women, and goes completely against the global trends.
(ii) The different ages for marriage violate the fundamental rights of equality (Article 14), protection against discrimination (Article 15), and dignity of life (Article 21) of citizens and goes against India’s commitment under the convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW). The international treaty Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDA W), also calls for the abolition of laws that assume that women have a different physical or intellectual rate of growth than men.
The matter is listed before the bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and justice Anirudha Bose.
The plea filed by Shahida Qureshi through Advocate-on-Record Vandana Sharma Bhandari, Rashmi Singhania and Ankita Chaudhary states that different ages for marriages violates the fundamental
rights of equality.
It is contended that the international treaty Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), also calls for the abolition of laws that assume that women have a different physical or intellectual rate of growth than men.
The petitioner has relied upon the facts that any classification/ discrimination based on sex/ gender must be founded on an intelligible differentia; and it must have a rational nexus with the object sought to be achieved by the impugned law, which lacks in these provisions and thus these provisions dehors the respective statute.
A reference of UNICEF report has also been made as per UNICEF report Young teenage girls are more likely to die due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth than women in their 20s, and their children are more likely to be stillborn or die in the first month of life. It is overlooked by the lawmakers that there is direct correlation of age of marriage and motherhood with health, medical well-being, and nutritional status of the mother and neonate, infant or child, during pregnancy, birth and thereafter. The law prescribes a minimum age of marriage to prevent child marriages and abuse of minors.
in view of changing social environment, this is the appropriate time to rethink on age of motherhood, imperatives of lowering Maternal Mortality Ratio and the improvement of nutritional levels among women. It is an accepted fact that a woman of21 years of age is physically and emotionally more competent to bear the responsibilities of matrimony and motherhood than that of 18 years.
The portioner has also submitted that he Law Commission of India in its Consultation Paper on Reform of Family Law has stated that: “For equality in
the true sense, the insistence on recognizing different ages of marriage between consenting adults must be abolished …. The difference in age for husband and wife has no basis in law as spouses entering into a marriage are by all means equals and their partnership must also be of that between equals.”
Earlier on this subject Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay had filed a petition which sought the transfer of petitions pending before Rajasthan High Court & Delhi High Court which have sought uniform age of marriage for both men & women.
