Marriage of minor okayed by HC

Mumbai, April 30 The Bombay High Court has approved the marriage of a minor girl with the youth she had eloped with last year.
A division bench of Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice A P Bhangale held that as per the provisions of the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956, the husband becomes a natural guardian of the girl after marriage.
Justice Nazki has cited his judgment in the Andhra Pradesh High Court where in a similar case a 13-year-old girl was allowed to stay with the boy she had eloped with and married.
In the present case, too the minor girl told the court that she wanted to stay with her husband and did not want to go back to her parents or the remand home. The court allowed the girl to stay with her husband, as the existing laws “are not against it”.
The earlier judgment states that “Legislatures have not done much to stop the child marriages which are a menace. There are so many acts which make the child marriage an offence but which do not make child marriage a void marriage.” The judgment also says, “There is nothing in the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 which would make a marriage illegal if it is solemnized as the bride has not completed the age of 18 years.”
The case pertains to the custody of a 17-year-old girl, whose father had filed a petition in the High Court in November last year after she went missing. On March 9, the RAK Marg police had found the girl with Gautam Dasgupta (25) and produced her before the HC on March 13. The court had observed that the girl had eloped with Dasgupta of her own will and took no action against him. The court, however, sent her to a juvenile observation home in Dongri till she completed 18 years of age in August. However, on Monday when the judges interviewed the girl in their chamber, she said she would like to stay with her husband.
Express News Service
Posted online: Thursday , May 01, 2008 at 12:31:45Updated: Thursday , May 01, 2008 at 12:31:45
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