SC dismisses child rights body’s plea against HC ruling that 16-year-old Muslim girl can marry

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights challenging a 2022 Punjab and Haryana High Court judgement, which ruled that a 16-year-old Muslim girl can lawfully marry a Muslim man under personal law, Live Law reports.

The High Court order had at the time also granted the couple protection from threats.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Justice R Mahadevan said on Tuesday that the child rights commission was not a party to the litigation before the High Court and therefore, it did not have the right to challenge the judgement.

“...If two minor children are protected by the High Court, how can NCPCR challenge such an order?” Live Law quoted the bench as having asked. “It is strange that the NCPCR, which is for protecting the children, has challenged such an order.”

The child rights panel said that it was raising a broader question of law: whether a girl, who had not become 18 years of age, can be considered to have the legal capacity to enter into a marriage merely based on personal law.

However, the bench said that no question of law was arising from the 2022 case. It allowed the statutory body to raise the matter “in an appropriate case”,...

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