Prevent and prohibit child marriages, prosecution alone won't bring societal change: Supreme Court

A Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra on Friday released a set of guidelines to include all stakeholders of the society to prevent child marriages rather than entirely depending on penalisation of the accused.

CJI DY Chandrachud said as quoted by Live Law, "We are cognizant of the impact that criminalisation has on families and communities. To ensure effective use of penal provisions in the PCMA, it is imperative that there is widespread awareness and education about child marriage and the legal consequences of its commission."

"However, the aim of the law enforcement machinery must not be solely focused on increasing prosecutions without making the best efforts to prevent and prohibit child marriage.

"The focus on penalisation reflects a harm- based approach which waits for harm to occur before taking any steps. This approach has proven to be ineffective at bringing about social change," the court said.

The court was hearing a petition filed by NGO Society for Enlightenment and Voluntary Action.

The top court said the root cause of child marriage in the society should be tracked.

The causes, as the court said, could be poverty, gender inequality, lack of education et al.

The Supreme Court has directed the guidelines to be sent to the Secretaries of all concerned ministries of the India government.

A copy of the guidelines has been ordered to be sent to the chief secretaries or administrators of states and union territories as well as NALSA and NCCPR.