Uniform Marriage Age for girls and boys, suggests Law Commission

The Law Commission has come with a proposal that fix uniform age of marriage for girls and boys at 18 with a dose of suggestion to the Indian government to bring suitable changes in the law to prohibit the marriage of children below the age of 18 while making marriage under 16 invalid. At present the marriageable age for girls is 18 while for boys is 21.

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“The age of marriage for both boys and girls should be 18 as there is no scientific reason why this should be different,” the proposal said.

The proposal submitted by the Justice A R Lakshmanan to the Union Law Minister H R Bharadwaj on Wednesday said that the child marriage of girls and boys between 16 and 18 should be negated at the option of either party by a court order. The proposal was part of the Commission’s 205th report on The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 (PCMA) and other allied laws.

The other recommendation includes compulsory registration of marriages also that the age for sexual consent should be raised from 15 years to 16 years for all girls, irrespective of their marital status.

If government gives its nod to the proposed law, consensual sex with girls under 16 years of age could invite punishment meant for rape. Also a husband sex with his minor wife aged below 16 years will be punishable offence, which under the existing law does not punishes a man for having sex with his wife above 15 years.

The commission found that the law under Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 (PCMA), did not make a child marriage invalid even if it was below the age of 15 years.

If the above law will be accepted in present format a child marriage involving a bride or groom below the age of 16 will be illegal.

The proposal also considered the difficulties that might orient for girls if marriage turned out to be void, the commission has recommended that the girls will be entitled to maintenance under PCMA act till their remarriage.

This law if passed will help tying the loose knots like the provision to declare a child marriage void and the sexual consent age but it will also increase the divorce and remarriage.