More than 85 years after the first law to outlaw child marriage was enacted, official statistics show that the practice is still prevalent in a large number of states. On Thursday, a top Supreme Court judge said laws prohibiting the menace had failed because laws often could not force societies to change. And it did not help if a social evil banned by a law had sanction from the society or personal laws of a religion.
Speaking at the release of an analysis of child marriage statistics in the country, Supreme Court Judge Justice AK Sikri said the prevention of child marriage was a secular law but was in conflict with Muslim Personal Law.
"Prevention of child marriage act is a secular law. But the Muslim personal law says once a girl attains puberty, she is ready for marriage. Nowadays, a girl attains puberty at the age of 11," the judge said, pointing that such situations arose in case of personal laws of other religions too. [NDTV] Read more
