25/10/2014
NEW DELHI: Child marriage "is an evil worse than r**e" and should be completely eradicated from society, said a Delhi court while ordering registration of a case against a girl's parents for getting her married at a tender age.
Metropolitan magistrate issued the direction while hearing a case of dowry harassment filed by the girl's parents against her husband and in-laws.
While ordering lodging of the case, the court held that "giving and taking dowry is punishable under the law".
The court directed the police to register a case under the appropriate provisions of the "Prohibition of Child Marriage Act" and under the Dowry Prohibition Act against the parents of the 14-year-old girl as well as her in-laws, against whom a domestic violence case has already been registered.
"Child marriage is an evil worse than r**e and should be completely eradicated from the society. This will not be possible if the stakeholders like the state fail to take appropriate action against the offenders.
"The court is not expected to sit as a mute spectator and let the evil perpetrate," the magistrate said while directing the DCP, South, to file a status report by October 19.