President Pranab Mukherjee has given his assent to the long-pending Prohibition of Child Marriage (Karnataka amendment) Bill, 2016, giving greater powers to the police and increasing the penalty for child marriage.
The Bill was drafted based on the recommendations of the core committee headed by Shivaraj V. Patil, former Judge of the Supreme Court. Karnataka is one of the States that has recorded the highest reported cases of child marriages (about 23%) in the country.
The amended bill seeks to ensure zero tolerance towards any child marriage, granting powers to policemen and enhancing penalties for those attending marriage ceremonies of minors. While the legislation did not prescribe a minimum punishment for offenders so far, it now proposes rigorous imprisonment of one year. An amendment has also been added to enable any police officer to take cognisance of the offence.
This was one of the 10 Bills pending with the Centre for the President’s nod.
The Bill amended last year by the State Assembly and sent to the Centre. The Union Home Ministry, which acts as an administrative ministry for State Bills and legislation, after consulting other central ministries, had forwarded the Bill to the Presidential secretariat, sources in the State secretariat said.
The State government had been urging the Centre to pass the Bill at the earliest, which would help it to completely eradicate the social menace in the next few years.
A large number of child marriage cases are reported from Dharwad, Belagavi, Bagalkot, Koppal, Raichur, and Vijayapura districts.
