Delhi High Court set to hear plea seeking 'uniform minimum age of marriage'

The Delhi High Court, on Wednesday, will hear a plea that states that there is discrimination involved in the legal age to get married and seeks to equalise the age of marriage for women by raising it. The PIL has been filed by BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay. 

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The legal age for men to get married is 21, whereas that for women is 18 years. The PIL also states that the difference in age is blatant discrimination. 

"Kindly treat the accompanying application as an urgent one in accordance with the High Court rules and orders. The petitioner is filing this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution. The matter is urgent in public interest as prayed. The discriminatory 'minimum age' limit for marriage for men and women is based in patriarchal stereotypes, has no scientific backing, perpetrates de jure and de facto inequality against women, and goes completely against the global trends."

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"The discriminatory 'minimum age' limit for marriage for men and women is based in patriarchal stereotypes, has no scientific backing, perpetrates de jure and de facto inequality against women, and goes completely against the global trends," the plea reads.

The plea also states that the difference in age breaches Articles 14, 15, and 21 of the Constitution by discriminating against women and contravene with the fundamental principles of gender equality and gender justice. Upadhyay argues that the plea will ensure that women receive more autonomy in their lives. 

The plea further stressed, "It is a social reality that women are expected (and often also pressurized) to beget children immediately after marriage and also forced to take up household chores in accordance with their stereotypical roles in the family. This harms their educational as well as economic pursuits and often impinges on their reproductive autonomy as well."

It added that a higher minimum age will ensure 'more autonomy to women in every sense.' 

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(with inputs from ANI)