The Muslim political parties have opposed the amendments related to the law of child marriage for women to 21, they termed as an attack on personal laws, they raised voices within the community which advocated as equal rights, have welcomed the move.
As per the Muslims, they don’t have codified personal laws as the other religious communities have. The Shariyat Muslim personal Application Act in the year 1937 says that Shariyat or the law of Islam will apply the quest that is related to marriage, dissolution of marriages, maintenance, dower, guardianship, gifts, etc. Under this act which is known as Shariyat, puberty or the age of 15 is the minimum age of marriage while in their holy book Quran is not in favor of child marriages.
In the year 2021, the PCMA Bill or The Prohibition of Child Marriage Amendment has been referred to a standing committe6e that seeks to increase the age of marriage for women and it increased to 21 they made sure to make it the same as the age of marriage for men. The PCMA bill also states that it will overrule all the personal laws: Section 2 of the Amendment bills which state that it will apply to the citizens of India “notwithstanding anything contrary or inconsistent in” in the year of 1872 in Indian Christian marriage Act, the year of 1936 The Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, In the year of 1937 Shariyat, the Muslim Personal Law Application Act, 1954 the special marriage Act, the Hindu Marriage Act in the year of 1955 and the year of 1969 the foreign marriage act.
In the Indian Constitution Section 6 also seeks to amend all the above laws with the exception of Muslim Personal Law. Every religion has its own codified personal laws. In each of these bills, the bills have been substituted the marriage at the age of 18 for women with 21 years. It doesn’t adjoin the Muslim personal law as it totally relies upon Shariyat.
A statement came from the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) states that ” While we welcome raising the age of marriage to 21, we want this amendment to the PCMA, 2006 to state unequivocally that this law applies to the community of Muslim also. Otherwise, the girls of Muslim community doesn’t stand to benefit from this law or its amendment.”
All religious communities have codified laws. And it has been 75 years of Independence and we still don’t have a comprehensively codified personal law. We have been deprived of our legislative protections when it comes to practices such as polygamy, child marriages, or triple Talaq” as told by Noorejahan Safia.