Recently, the Supreme court decided to examine a plea to transfer to itself cases pending in the Delhi and Rajasthan High courts to declare a “uniform minimum age” for marriage.
The Union government has also set up a committee to reconsider the minimum age of marriage for women, which is currently 18. A bench led by the Chief Justice of India issued notice to the government on a plea, which was filed to “secure gender justice, gender equality, and dignity of women.” The plea sought direction from the Union government to remove the anomalies in the minimum age of marriage and make it ‘gender-neutral, religion-neutral and uniform for all citizens.’ Various laws state that the minimum age to get married should be 18 for women and 21 for men. The Supreme Court has the power under Article 139A to transfer to itself, cases involving the same or substantially the same questions of law pending before two or more high courts. It has been argued that the different ages marriage violated the fundamental rights. It also went against India’s commitment under the Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.
For Hindus, The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, sets 18 years as the minimum age of marriage for the bride and 21 years as the minimum age for the groom. However, child marriages are not illegal even though they can be declared void at the request of the minor in the marriage. In Islam, the marriage of a minor who has attained puberty is considered valid. The special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 also prescribe 18 and 21 years as the minimum age of consent for marriage for women and men respectively.
Increasing the legal age for the marriage of Women has enormous benefits including lowering the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR), Improvement of nutrition levels. On the financial front, opportunities would be opened up for women for pursuing higher education and career and become financially empowered. It would in turn result in a more egalitarian society. Increasing the marriage age will push the mean marriage age higher and will lead to more females doing graduation and hence improving the female doing graduation and hence improving the female labour force participation ratio.