The Delhi High Court on Monday sought a response from the Delhi government on the plea that asked to declare all child marriages in the state as Void ab initio (to be declared invalid from the very beginning)
A bench of Justices Jyoti Singh and D.N Patel had issued a notice to the government and sought its stand on the petition that was filed.
What was the petition?
The petition was filed by a woman who sought to nullify her marriage which happened when she was a minor. The court issued a notice to the woman’s brother, father, and the man she was married to asking to file their response on the plea submitted, by February 12th, 2020.
The woman, represented by Tanveer Ahmed Mir challenged the provision of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act as it makes the marriage of minors voidable only at the option of either of the parties who was a child at the time of marriage.
The petitioner was also represented by advocates Gurpreet Singh Mohit D, Bakul Jain, and Jatin Sethi.
It was also revealed during the hearing that the woman was living in an undisclosed location in the fear that her family would force her into agreeing to the marriage that was performed 10 years ago when she was a minor.
The woman claims to be born on December 10th, 1993, and said that when her marriage was performed in April 2010, she was a minor who was awaiting her 10th board results. She exclaimed that she had no option but to listen to her parents and couldn’t go against their wishes. She also added that the man she got married to was her maternal aunt’s Son.
The woman said she takes private tuitions for the specially-abled and was living peacefully with her parents till November 19th, 2020 when the man she got married to came with his parents to take her to Gujarat.
When she denied this, she was beaten up in front of everyone by her brother at the command of the man she was married to.
The petition stated that after the incident, on November 20th she fled from her home, and ever since, she is in hiding thus the petition sought protection for the petitioner from her family.
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