SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir government has finalised the prohibition of child marriage rules.
The administration has unveiled the Jammu and Kashmir Prohibition of Child Marriage Rules, 2023, nearly four years after the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 became applicable to the Union Territory.
The rules state that officers from various departments shall act as child marriage prohibition officers under the law within their respective jurisdictions.
As per the Rules, the Chief Medical Officer, Chief Education Officer, Assistant Commissioner (Panchayat), Block Medical Officer, Block Development Officer, Assistant Labour Commissioner, District Social Welfare Officer, Child Development Protection Officer, Tehsildar, Naib-Tehsildar, and Zonal Education Officer shall act as child marriage prohibition officers within their respective jurisdictions.
According to the Rules, it shall be the duty of every child marriage prohibition officer to promptly respond to any information regarding the solemnisation of any child marriage received through any mode of communication, including written or oral reports.
He/she should present the child whose marriage is expected to be solemnised or the child victim of child marriage before the Child Welfare Committee constituted under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2016, and Jammu and Kashmir Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Rules, 2021.
These officers are also required to provide quarterly reports and statistics to the relevant district magistrate and the Directorates of Social Welfare in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the Rules, it shall be their duty to file a petition for annulling a child marriage in the district court if any of the contracting parties to the marriage is a minor.
The Rules further state that the district magistrate shall ensure that in every Panchayat, a committee is constituted to assist the child marriage prohibition officer in obtaining information about such child marriages, preventing such ceremonies, and annulling such marriages.
As per these rules, it shall be the duty of local priests of any religion authorised to solemnise marriages to inform the child marriage prohibition officer in their area about the likelihood of such child marriages and refrain from solemnizing such marriages to prevent instances of child marriage. (KNO)
