Supreme Court dismissed plea seeking uniform minimum age of marriage for men and women

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• Mar 28, 2023 | Dhupali Das

The Supreme Court refused to hear a petition seeking a uniform minimum marriage age for men and women. The Supreme Court dismissed the petition stating that...

Digital Desk: The Supreme Court refused to hear a petition seeking a uniform minimum marriage age for men and women. The Supreme Court dismissed the petition, stating that "it would amount to directing Parliament to make a law to fix the age." The bench stated on Monday that the issue falls under the purview of the legislature and refused to hear it. 

The Supreme Court declined to deal with the case

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala stated that the case was within the purview of the legislature and that it would not deal with the issue. The Supreme Court referred to its February 20 order, in which it dismissed another PIL brought by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, demanding equality in the legal age of marriage for men and women.

The petition, filed by Shahida Quraishi, attempted to raise the legal marriage age for women to 21, bringing them on par with males.

The bench rejected a similar petition in February 

The bench noted during the hearing that it had dismissed an identical plea in February. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and objecting to the plea, stated that deciding the plea would be equivalent to legislating because this is within the purview of the legislature.

While dismissing that plea, the top court noted that it had previously rejected an argument of a similar nature and would not be considering this appeal either.

"The personal laws governing men's and women's marriage ages are being challenged in these proceedings. We resolved a similar matter on February 20, 2023... and thus the plea is dismissed," the court stated.