Holding that the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 (PCMA) overrides Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) on the question of the minimum age of marriage, the Allahabad High Court has ruled that a Muslim girl cannot be married merely because she has attained puberty.

Court observed that the legal age of marriage prescribed under the PCMA applies uniformly to every citizen, irrespective of religion, and that the Shariat principle recognising puberty, generally at 15 years, as the age of marriage "runs clearly in the teeth" of both the PCMA and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The bench of Justice J.J. Munir and Justice Achal Sachdev dismissed a plea to quash an FIR lodged against 19 persons accused of obstructing police and Child Line officials from stopping the marriage of a 16-year-old girl in Bulandshahr.