HC: Marriage before attaining prescribed age under Hindu Marriage Act is Voidable, not Void (Read Order)

The Punjab and Haryana High Court ruled in an order for the registration of a marriage performed under the Hindu Marriage Act under Section 5 as the marriage ceremony performed under the HMA Act by neglecting the lawful minimum age mentioned in the act for both male and female to legalize their marriage makes it voidable i.e. the marriage can be called off at the discretion of either of the party but the same is not void and hence directed the concerned authorities to register the marriage.

Case of the Petitioner

The petitioner got married in the year 2015. At that point of time the groom was below the legal age mentioned in Section 5 (iii) to get married lawfully i.e. 21 under the HMA Act. The application for the registration of the marriage was instituted in the year 2019, at this point of time both the bride and the groom had attained the legal age as mentioned under the HMA.

Observation of the Bench

The Bench referred the case of Baljit Kumar Boprai v. State of Punjab & Anr., 2008 (3) RCR (Civil) 109, wherein the High Court ruled that the application for registration of marriage has to be accepted once both the bride and the groom have attained the age of majority. It was further asserted by the Bench that a plain reading of Section 11 of the HMA, makes it explicitly vivid that the marriage performed under the HMA  even on willful neglect of Section 5 (iii) does not declare the marriage as void but voidable. Furthermore under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act the marriage among minors is not termed as an invalid marriage. Section 3 of the Act asserts that the Child marriages are voidable meaning the same can be called off at the discretion of the contracting party that is the child.

The bench conceded with the position taken by the Delhi High Court in the case of Jitendra Kumar Sharma v. State of Anr., whereby it was held that “it was clear that where, earlier, 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 its annulment.” In the final remarks of the bench it was stated that since the Petitioners had not instituted any application for the annulment of marriage on the pretext of it being voidable, thus there is no legal restriction for registration of the marriage once both the parties have attained the age of majority.

In the words of the Bench “ the parties are required to have completed the age of 21 years at the time of registration of their marriage.” The court laid stress on the need  of  the registration of marriages as the registration of the same strengthens its value seen  from the perspective of law, as the moment the registration is completed, the couple has a piece of evidence in the eyes of the law, which collaterally give legal  rights  to the child born out of the marriage and also plays a relevant role in the matter  of  matrimonial disputes.   

Case Details:

Before: Punjab and Haryana High Court

Case title: Deepak Kumar and Another v. State of Haryana and others

Bench:    Hon’ble Mr. Justice Sudhir Mittal

Read Order @ LatestLaws.com