Setting age limit for marriage not un-Islamic: FSC

Court dismisses plea challenging Sections 4, 5 and 6 of Child Marriage Restraint Act

ISLAMABAD:

In a landmark judgment, the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) has declared that setting a minimum age limit for boys and girls for their marriage is not against Islam.

A full bench of the FSC, comprising Chief Justice Muhammad Noor Meskanzai, Justice Dr Syed Muhammad Anwar and Justice Khadim Hussain M Shaikh, in exercise of power under Article 203-D of the Constitution, heard a Shariat case wherein the petitioner had challenged Sections 4, 5 and 6 of the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 for their being repugnant to the Injunctions of Islam.

The court dismissed the petition and categorically declared that setting any minimum age limit for boys or girls for their marriage by a state was not against Islam.

“Hence the Sections wherein the minimum age limit is prescribed by the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 for both the girl and boys are not un-Islamic,” the verdict read.

Section 4 of the Act read: “If a person, not being a minor, contracts child marriage, shall be liable to punishment of simple imprisonment which may extend to one month and/or a fine of one thousand rupees.”

According to Section 5, whoever performed, conducted or directed any child marriage shall be punishable with simple imprisonment which might extend to one month and/or a fine of Rs1,000 unless he proved that he had reason to believe that the marriage was not a child marriage.”

Section 6 of the Act read: “Where a minor contracts a child marriage, any person having charge of the minor, whether as parent or guardian or in any other capacity, lawful or unlawful, who does any act to promote the marriage or permits it to be solemnised, or negligently fails to prevent it from being solemnised, shall be punishable with simple imprisonment which may extend to one month and/or a fine of one thousand rupees. [Provided that no woman shall be punishable with imprisonment]”

Its sub-section 2 read: “For the purposes of this section, it shall be presumed, unless and until the contrary is proved, that where a minor has contracted a child marriage, the person having charge of such minor has negligently failed to prevent the marriage from being solemnised.”

The Child Marriage Restraint Act was passed on September 28 1929 in the Imperial Legislative Council of India and fixed the age of marriage for girls at 14 years and boys at 18 years.

In 2019, the ministers of the ruling PTI were at loggerheads over the bill pertaining to marriage of persons below the age of 18.

In the month of May that year, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry expressed his displeasure at some “elected representatives and ministers’ opposition” of the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill, 2018 in the National Assembly.

The lawmakers who opposed the bill also included MNAs from Fawad’s own political party, most prominent of them -- Religious Affairs Minister Noorul Haq Qadri and State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan.

The bill had been unanimously endorsed by the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights and was tabled in the Senate by PPP Senator Sherry Rehman.

In 2014, the Sindh Assembly unanimously adopted the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, which raised the legal minimum age of marriage for boys and girls to 18 years.

It further made the act a punishable offence. A man, above 18 years, who contracts a child marriage, could now be imprisoned for three years.

Men who solemnised an under-age marriage can also be locked up for two to three years.

Even the parents or guardians, who authorised the marriage, can be prosecuted for failing to prevent it.