The crackdown on child marriage has triggered protests in Assam.
Guwahati:
Assam’s crackdown on child marriage has invited stinging questions from the Gauhati High Court, which has objected to the inclusion of charges under the tough law meant to protect children from sexual offences.
Over 3,000 people allegedly involved in child marriage have so far been detained across Assam, and kept in makeshift jails, which the women protested and condemned as the sole breadwinner of their family.
The police action has been questioned as it has disposed of years-old cases, and experts have also doubted the validity of invoking the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses or POCSO Act in child marriage cases.
Granting pre-arrest bail to nine people accused under the POCSO Act, in one of which the punishment is a minimum of 20 years, the Gauhati High Court on Tuesday said these are not cases that require custodial interrogation.
“POCSO you can add anything. What is POCSO [charge] Here? Just because POCSO has been added, does it mean that the judge will not see what is in it? We are not exonerating anyone here. Nobody is stopping you from conducting the investigation,” Justice Suman Shyam said.
“Is there an allegation of rape here?”, he said while hearing another case, describing the allegations as “strange”.
“At the moment, this court is of the opinion that these are cases which do not require custodial interrogation… If you find that someone is guilty, file a charge sheet,” the court said in another related case.
“It is creating havoc in people’s personal lives. There are children, family members, old people. Obviously it (child marriage) is a bad idea. We will give our views but the issue at the moment is whether all of them should happen. ” Arrested and jailed,” it added.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma launched a crackdown on child marriage with over 4,000 police cases on February 3 as a way to fix the state’s poor health metrics.
“The campaign against this social evil will continue. We seek the support of the people of Assam in our fight against this social crime,” the chief minister said on Friday.
Opposition parties have criticized the campaign, terming the arrests of teenage husbands and family members as “misuse of the law” for political gains, and comparing police action with “terrorist mobs”.