CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the State to respond to a plea seeking to constitute a committee to stop the child marriage that prevails among the Deekshithars of Chidambaram temple.
Litigant S Saranya from Chennai filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Madras High Court (MHC) to constitute a committee to stop future child marriages.
The case was listed before a division bench comprising Justice R Mahadevan and Justice Mohammed Shaffiq.
In her litigation, she stated that child marriages cause various harms to the girls including the denial of rights to health, education, and development. Hence the government of India tabulated the Child Marriage Restraint Act in 1929, subsequently, it was amended in 1978 by increasing the minimum age as 18 for females to marry. The litigation also stated that in 2021 at Parliament, the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill was introduced to increase the minimum marriage age for females from 18 to 21, and that bill was referred to the Standing Committee.
Despite several such prohibitions, recently the Deekshithars committee in Chidambaram has arranged a child marriage to 12 and 15-year-old children inside the world-famous Chidambaram Natarajar temple, contended the litigant. Hence she sought to constitute a committee including the Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Department to stop child marriage in the future.
Additional Public Prosecutor R Muniyapparaj appeared for the police and submitted that an FIR was lodged regarding child marriage and an investigation is underway.
After the submission, the bench directed the State and Cuddalore Superintendent of Police to respond to the PIL in two weeks and directed the litigant to implead the Deekshithars in the case.