Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee vice-president M M Hassan on Tuesday said the Congress party did not agree with the opinions of Muslim religious scholars on reducing the marriage age of girls belonging to the community.
Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Hassan that fixing the marriage age as 18 was not against the Muslim Personal Law. Reducing the marriage age will only retard the social and educational progress of the community.
He was opposed to politicising the issue, but traced the roots of the controversy to an order issued by the previous LDF government with an eye on the Assembly elections. The CPI (M) did not have any right to politicise this issue as the LDF Government’s order was ambiguous. While it provided for registration of marriage solemnised under the personal law, it did not specify the marriage age. The UDF government issued an order clarifying this point by stating the marriage age as 16. This was subsequently withdrawn following a controversy over it, he said.
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