In Udaipur, Court Injunctions Prevent Child Marriage

In October 2022, Shailendra Pandya, director of the NGO, Gayatri Seva Sansthan (GSS), was leading a campaign against child marriage in Udaipur. Around 25 percent of women aged 20 to 24 years in Rajasthan were married before 18 years of age, according to the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5), released in May 2022. This is higher than the national average of 23.3 percent. Almost all the factors which lead to child marriage, including social customs, patriarchy, poverty, lack of education and fear for the safety of girl-child, are at play in Udaipur. The GSS campaign received encouraging support by the citizens as well as government – people from the community reported child marriages to concerned government departments and the administration announced cash reward of INR 2100 (US$ 25) for sharing information about child marriage. Pandya wanted to go a step further and demonstrate the use of policy in preventing child marriage. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, section 13, allows the Judicial First Class magistrate/ Metropolitan Magistrate to issue an injunction prohibiting child marriage on the basis of a complaint received by the Child Marriage Prohibition Officer or reliable information or suo motu, if the court is convinced that a child marriage in violation of the law is arranged or about to be solemnised. Before declaring a marriage void, the Magistrate gives an opportunity to stakeholders to be heard.

“In case of urgency, the court can issue interim injunction without giving any notice but in most of the cases, the complainant is successful in getting an injunction when the information about marriage is received 2-3 days in advance. This allows the court to analyse the case and there is time to corroborate information,” said Pandya. If a person conducts or officiates child marriage or participates in the marriage in contravention to the injunction, such marriage shall be void and the person(s) can face imprisonment for a maximum of two years and fine which may extend to INR one lakh (US$ 1200) or both. On April 17, 2023, an anonymous person called the GSS helpline to share information about a family in Khairwara village which was planning to marry off their minor son in a few days. The person also shared details of the family of the girl, who, according to him, was also a minor. When Pandya’s colleagues at GSS informed him about this call, he made teams to discreetly collect evidence to prove that a marriage was soon to be solemnised between two minors. “I wanted to go to the court with a solid case after due diligence,” said Pandya. One of his staff members was able to procure the wedding invite. Since GSS used to conduct awareness workshops in schools, they had a rapport with the administration of many schools in the district. The boy’s school was able to confirm to them that he was a minor. Armed with these documents, GSS moved the Khairwara Sub[1]Divisional Court two days before the marriage, demanding that the court issue an injunction to stop the marriage.

It was the first time a court in Udaipur heard a complaint of this nature. “The court was reluctant and asked GSS to approach the police,” recalled Pandya. Resolved to see the practical application of law, Pandya consulted Kuldeep Sharma, Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Udaipur. In his previous stints, Sharma was posted in districts including Jaipur, Bundi and Jodhpur, where courts issued injunction orders to stop child marriages. “I was familiar with section 13 of PCMA,” said Sharma. “The good thing about this provision is that people get a chance to be heard before the court. Secondly, an injunction is a court order which creates a deterrent among people. If local authorities or police simply warn the family against child marriage, the parents postpone the marriage or relocate to another district or state to get the child married. That does not happen after a court has issued injunction,” he added. Both Pandya and Sharma met with the Magistrate to explain PCMA, specifically the section which empowers the court to issue injunction. The following day, both the families were summoned to court and asked to prove that their children had attained the legal age of marriage. Their failure to do so prompted the court to issue injunction. This is how the use of policy stopped a child marriage in Udaipur. “These kids will realise in the future that we worked for them. They are too young to understand how different their lives would have been if they got married that day,” said Sharma.

The national and regional media carried the news about child marriage being averted through court injunction. It sent a message and acted as a deterrent for others who were planning on such unions.

(This is an excerpt from the revised edition of my book 'When Children Have Children: Tipping Point to end Child Marriage')