Bare Act
The Prohibition of Child marriage act
Civil200622 sections
The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act regulates and aims to eradicate child marriages in India, defining a child as a male under twenty-one and a female under eighteen. It applies to all citizens of India, both within the country and abroad. The law matters because it empowers young people to annul marriages forced upon them as minors, protects their rights to maintenance and custody, and legally protects any offspring. By punishing adult grooms, participating parents, and religious solemnizers, and appointing officers to stop weddings, the act actively safeguards vulnerable youth from exploitation while promoting gender equality and human dignity.
- 0. Preamble
- 1. Short title, extent and commencement.
- 2. Definitions.
- 3. Child marriages to be voidable at the option of contracting party being a child.
- 4. Provision for maintenance and residence to female contracting party to child marriage.
- 5. Custody and maintenance of children of child marriages.
- 6. Legitimacy of children born of child marriages.
- 7. Power of district court to modify orders issued under section 4 or section 5.
- 8. Court to which petition should be made.
- 9. Punishment for male adult marrying a child.
- 10. Punishment for solemnising a child marriage.
- 11. Punishment for promoting or permitting solemnisation of child marriages.
- 12. Marriage of a minor child to be void in certain circumstances.
- 13. Power of court to issue injunction prohibiting child marriages.
- 14. Child marriages in contravention of injunction orders to be void.
- 15. Offences to be cognizable and non-bailable.
- 16. Child Marriage Prohibition Officers.
- 17. Child Marriage Prohibition Officers to be public servants.
- 18. Protection of action taken in good faith.
- 19. Power of State Government to make rules.
- 20. Amendment of Act No. 25 of 1955.—In the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, in section 18, for clause
- 21. Repeal and savings.
PDF: pending for this language.