NEW DELHI: Upholding the marriage of a five-month-pregnant teenaged Muslim girl, the Delhi High Court has handed over her custody to her mother-in-law as her husband is in judicial custody.A Division Bench comprising Justices B.D. Ahmed and Ajit Bharihoke passed the judgment while deciding a petition filed by the girl’s father seeking a direction to the Delhi police for procuding the girl before the Court.The Bench decided the case on the basis of the Shariat (Muslim personal law) which considers a Muslim girl a major if she has reached puberty.The Bench said that since the girl had reached puberty, she was a major and mature enough to choose her life partner.Counsel for the petitioner, R.D. Rana, had opposed the marriage on the ground that the girl was below the marriageable age of 18. He further argued that the marriage could not be justified on the basis of Shariat as it was not solemnised under that law.He submitted that in the garb of marriage the accused could not escape the punishment of the offence under Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code. He also opposed the argument that the girl had consented to marry the boy, submitting that that the consent was immaterial because it had been established on the basis of documents that she was below 16 years of age.The couple got married in a court here last year. They belong to weaker sections of society. The girl’s father is a security guard.The New Ashok Nagar police had arrested the boy last month at Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh when the girl’s father moved the Court. The Court also dismissed his petition.Before the order of the Court to hand over the girl to her mother-in-law, she was put up at a Nari Niketan here.
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