Prayagraj, Oct 28 The Allahabad High Court has issued statewide directions to the Uttar Pradesh government to prevent the registration of child marriages, ruling that an Aadhaar card and an unverified school transfer certificate cannot serve as proof of age.
Justice Tej Pratap Tiwari issued these directions on Tuesday while examining a petition by one Deepak Pal.
The court said that the marriage registration must strictly ensure the parties have reached the statutory age of 21 years for the groom and 18 years for the bride on the application date.
The state online portal must record the verification source, flag age discrepancies and prevent automatic generation of certificates when verification is incomplete and if documents raise doubt or show a party is underage, the application must be referred to the child marriage prohibition officer and the district magistrate.
The matter came before the court after a marriage was registered by the registering authority on the basis of a school transfer certificate and an Aadhaar card.
The court found that the transfer certificate had not been verified in the prescribed manner. Holding that the registration could not be sustained, the bench observed: “The registering authority therefore had no verified proof of age before it registered the marriage, and thereby did not discharge the duty.”
Rejecting reliance on Aadhaar and unverified educational documents, the court held: “An Aadhaar card cannot prove age and a mere transfer certificate does not answer the description of any class of documents mentioned in Section 94(2)(i) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.”
Referring to the Supreme Court judgment in Seema v. Ashwani Kumar, Justice Tiwari observed, “The issue is therefore not merely whether the date of birth is entered in the marriage register, but whether the process of registration is so structured that it meaningfully verifies age and thereby serves the very purpose for which compulsory registration has been contemplated.”
The court has fixed November 27 as the next date of hearing in the case.
(PTI News)
