SC Issues Notice on Petition Seeking Transfer of Cases on Uniform Age for Marriage

On Monday, the Apex Court issued a notice on a petition asking for transfer of cases that are praying for uniform marriage age for both men and women, from High Courts to the Supreme Court.

The petition is filled by Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay

Advocate Upadhyay filled the transfer plea that stated that in order to avoid multiplicity of litigations and conflicting views on the interpretation of Articles 14, 15, 21 of the Indian constitution and judgments on gender justice and gender equality.

Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay in his main plea asking for uniform age of marriage said that there are specific religion-based legislations which provides certain age for marriage and this is in violation of Article 14 and 21 of the constitution. The provisions are:

· Section 60(1) of the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872;

· Section 3(1)(c) of the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936;

· Section 4(c) of the Special Marriage Act, 1954;

· Section 5(iii) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.

· Section 2(a) of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.

The petitioner seeks for minimum marriage age for men and women should be fixed at 21.

The petition states that on July 30, 1980, India signed the ‘Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women’ (CEDAW) and ratified it in 1993 to take all necessary steps to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters pertaining to marriage and family relations.

Further, the petition prayed before the Supreme Court order the Central government to take necessary measure to remove the anomalies in the minimum age of marriage and make it ‘gender-neutral, religion-neutral and uniform for all citizens’ in the spirit of the Articles 14, 15, 21 of the constitution  and International Conventions and declare that minimum age of marriage shall be 21 years for all citizens.

"Today, the minimum age for women is 18 as against 21 for men and this amounts to blatant discrimination against women, the petition argues. It claims there no scientific backing for different ages for marriage except for the distinction based on patriarchal stereotypes perpetuating inequality against women that goes completely against the global trends," the petition states.

The plea also urges the top court to either itself decide the issue of the marriage age to secure "gender justice, gender equality and dignity of women," and declare 21 years as the minimum age of marriage for all citizens or direct the Centre to remove the anomaly in the minimum age of marriage and make it "gender-neutral, religion-neutral and uniform for all citizens in the spirit of Articles 14, 15, 21 and the international conventions