SC to interact with minor girl, father, husband to decide on legality of her marriage

The Supreme Court on Monday sought the presence of a 16-year-old Uttar Pradesh girl, her father, and husband before it on October 1 to adjudicate her plea challenging the Allahabad High Court order which declared her marriage as invalid.

A bench headed by Justice NV Ramana said it will interact with the minor girl, her father, and husband over the matter. The court asked its Registry to arrange a psychiatrist, preferably female, from AIIMS who will also interact with the girl.

The Uttar Pradesh government told the apex court that the girl has now been shifted to a child home in Lucknow from Nari Niketan.

The girl, in her petition, claimed that she entered into the marriage with the Muslim man after attaining puberty, which is valid under the Islamic law.

The Allahabad High Court, in its order, had said that her marriage is void on the ground that she had not attained the age of 18 when she solemnized it.

She was lodged at Nari Niketan in Ayodhya on the order of a lower court on a complaint filed by her father against the marriage. The girl filed a Habeas Corpus petition through her husband in the Allahabad High Court challenging her lodging at Nari Niketan. She, in her plea, submitted before the Allahabad High Court that her lodging amounted to "illegal detention". The court had ordered her to be sent to a shelter home after she wished not to join her parents.

The girl had contended in the High Court that the Muslim Personal Law permits a girl to marry upon attaining puberty.