High Court defers hearing on petition challenging marriageable ages of bride, groom

The Rajasthan High Court had an interesting petition challenging the legal age of the bride and the groom for marriage as mentioned in the law. After the initial hearing on the petition, the court has deferred the matter for two weeks.

Petitioner Abdul Mannan, in his petition, stated that the difference of three years in the marriageable age of the bride and the groom was discriminatory and hence a violation of fundamental rights.

“The groom is legally allowed to marry at the age of 21 years while a bride’s legal age of marriage is 18 years. This gap of three years is discriminatory”, he argued.

When the division bench of Justice Sangeet Lodha and Justice Vineet Kumar Mathur inquired about the age according to the petitioner, he replied that both should have the same age of 21 years as the legal age for marriage.

Mannan, in his petition, attributed the age difference as an indicator of patriarchal mentality in the society and stated that there was no scientific basis for this perception.

“The Law Commission of India has also observed that there was no scientific ground for this perception and it bolsters conservatism that bride should be younger than the groom,” he argued. Terming the practice to be inequality for the women, he stated that this was an anti-global trend as well as in contravention of the gender equality, gender justice and dignity of women.

He also termed it to be violative of Articles 14, 15 and 21 and stated that the age of the bride and groom are same in 125 countries.

Citing a national conference on child marriage, he said that the issue had also been taken up by the National Human Rights Commission in this conference and a recommendation had been given to bring parity in the marriageable age of both.

Convinced by the arguments, the court agreed to hear the petition and listed it for hearing after two weeks.

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