Anushka Mansharamani
On 11th January, the Delhi High Court sought response from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on the plea filed to declare all child marriages taken place in the National Capital as void ab initio.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D. N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh passed a notification to the Delhi government in order to seek its stand on the petition filed.
The petition was filed by a woman who takes private tuitions for the specially-abled students.
She seeks to nullify her marriage which was allegedly performed when she was a minor.
The court also issued a notice to the woman’s father, brother, and her husband seeking a response to the plea filed before the next date of hearing.
The matter is listed to be heard on 12th February.
Advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir, representing the woman challenged a provision under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act which makes a wedding of a minor voidable only at the discretion of either of the parties who was a child at the time the event took place.
During the hearing, Tanveer Ahmed Mir told the bench that his client was currently staying at an undisclosed location as she is apprehensive that her family would force her to give the assent for the child marriage that took place in April 2010 while she was a minor.
The petitioner also submits that the person whom she was married to was the son of her maternal aunt and she gave her consent as she was in the 10th standard and could not go against her parents’ will.
On 19th November, 2020 the person who she was married to as a child came with his parents to take her to Gujarat and when she disagreed she was beaten up by her brother in front of everyone.
She escaped her home on 20th November and is staying at an undisclosed location therefore the plea also sought protection for the women from her family and the man and his family.