Age of majority of persons domiciled in India. – Subject as aforesaid, [every minor of whose person or property, or both, a guardian, other than a guardian for a suit within the meaning of Chapter XXXI of the [Code of Civil Procedure], has been or shall be appointed or declared by any Court of Justice before the minor has attained the age of eighteen years, and every minor of whose property the superintendence has been or shall be assumed by any Court of Wards before the minor has attained that age] shall, notwithstanding anything contained in the [Indian Succession Act or in any other enactment, be deemed to have attained his majority when he shall have completed his age of twenty-one years and not before.
Subject as aforesaid, every other person domiciled in [India] shall be deemed to have attained his majority when he shall have completed his age of eighteen years and not before.
Section 375 (sixthly) of the Indian Penal Code to buttress the submission that holding the forcible sexual intercourse amounts to rape, when the same is with or without the woman’s consent when she is under 16 years of age.
Section 13 of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, which empower the Courts to issue injunctions prohibiting the solemnization of marriages in contravention of the said Act. Section 13(1) reads as follows:
13. Power of court to issue injunction prohibiting child marriages.–(1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this Act, if, on an application of the Child Marriage Prohibition Officer or on receipt of information through a complaint or otherwise from any person, a Judicial Magistrate of the first class or a Metropolitan Magistrate is satisfied that a child marriage in contravention of this Act has been arranged or is about to be solemnised, such Magistrate shall issue an injunction against any person including a member of an organization or an association of persons prohibiting such marriage.
The Question of Muslim Candidates
Paras 441, 442 and 443 of the Halsbury’s Laws of England, the contents of which are extracted hereinabove, it becomes clear that the custom stands abrogated or destroyed, if it is running contrary to the statutory provisions, unless the custom is saved or preserved by a statute. The previously existing rights do not re-emerge, as they are superseded by the statute.
As the codified law prevails over all other laws, be they are ecclesiastical, personal or customary, the rights which the Muslim girls had under Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 do not remain alive on the commencement of the P.C.M. Act
A Mohammedan girl cannot be permitted to marry before she attained the age of 18 years. “A Mohammedan girl of 15 years, who has attained puberty, is competent to marry without the consent of her parents” is not valid law of the Land after enforcement of Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 .
