Child Marriage

Child marriage is a marriage in which one or both of the parties are minors — below the legally prescribed minimum age for marriage. In India, the minimum age of marriage is 18 years for women and 21 years for men under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, which replaced the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929. The practice remains prevalent in several states despite legal prohibition, and the legal status of child marriages — whether void or voidable — has been the subject of significant legislative and judicial attention.

The legal treatment of child marriages in India is one of the most complex intersections of personal law, criminal law, and child rights. Under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, a child marriage is not automatically void — it is voidable at the option of the contracting child. The child may repudiate the marriage by filing a petition before attaining majority plus two years (i.e., before reaching 20 years of age). However, an amendment to render all child marriages void is pending, and certain state governments have enacted laws making child marriages void ab initio.

The Supreme Court has progressively tightened the legal treatment of child marriages. In the landmark judgment in Independent Thought v. Union of India, the Court read down Exception 2 to Section 375 IPC, which had created an exception for sexual intercourse with a wife aged 15–18 years. The Court held that this exception was unconstitutional to the extent it permitted sexual intercourse with a minor wife — a child married under personal law cannot have lesser rights than an unmarried child under POCSO.

The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, proposing to raise the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years, was introduced in Parliament in 2021. If enacted, it would align the minimum age for both men and women. The proposed change has generated debate about its interaction with Muslim personal law, where different rules on age of marriage may apply, and about the effectiveness of raising the legal age without corresponding social change.

For advocates, child marriage cases often involve multiple proceedings simultaneously: a petition for annulment of the child marriage under PCMA, a POCSO complaint against the adult husband, a CWC (Child Welfare Committee) application for the child's care and protection, and family court proceedings on maintenance and custody. Familiarity with all these frameworks and their inter-operation is essential in this specialised practice area.