In holding that the legal age of marriage is the same for all citizens irrespective of religion and that the Muslim Personal Law, or Shariah, cannot override civil statutes such as the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, the Allahabad High Court has done a good turn for young girls in Uttar Pradesh.

The HC underscored this while dismissing a writ petition by 19 people seeking to quash an FIR that named them in a case of assaulting the police and Childline rescue officials when they sought to stop the marriage of a 16-year-old Muslim girl in Bulandshahr. The case points to all that is wide of the mark about child marriages—specifically child brides—in........

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