NEW DELHI: If a minor girl was married off by her parents, should she be ostracized from government service on the ground that employing her will mean encouraging the banned ritual?
Ratnarashi, who was married off at 14 years by her parents, suffered years of abuse before divorcing her husband. Studying hard, she qualified for the Madhya Pradesh State Civil Services but found the service rules blocking her from gaining entry into government employment.
She moved the Supreme Court challenging validity of rule 6(5) of MP Civil Services (general condition of service) Rules, 1961, which denied employment to those who married as minors. She had cleared the examination twice, but was denied the job because her parents married her off when she was a minor.
Her counsel Neela Gokhale on Thursday pleaded before a bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana P Desai that all she wanted was a fresh chance to appear in the state civil services examination and a direction to the authorities to accept her form.
But, the bench went a step further and directed the state to submit in sealed cover the marks obtained by her in two previous attempts. It posted the matter for hearing on March 1.
Ratnarashi's marriage, according to her counsel, was marred by physical and mental cruelty. She got a divorce 13 years later. She got no maintenance from her husband and had the unenviable task of bringing up two children. With sheer hard work, she cleared the state civil services exams only to be told that her marriage as minor disqualified her from a state government job. She cleared the examination twice but was rejected because of her marriage as a minor over which she had little control.
Rule 6(5), inserted into the MP law on March 10, 2005, says, "No candidate shall be eligible for appointment to a service or post who has married before the minimum age fixed for marriage. The minimum age of marriage for a boy is 21 years while that for a girl is 18 years." Ratnarashi argued that she was a victim and not an offender.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court dismissed her petition and justified the provision saying Rule 6(5) had been introduced to prevent child marriages more effectively as various laws to eradicate the social evil had not yielded results. Her counsel said the HC ignored the object of the legislation, which was to protect minors and not to punish them.
"Rule of law does not contemplate any punishment or disqualification of a child who is a victim of such child marriage practice and in fact, even the Declaration of Human Rights of the Child by United Nations specifically declares that any child in conflict of law shall not suffer any disqualification in his career and shall be supported by the state to reform himself as a law abiding citizen," she said.
Ratnarashi said although she was a victim of the deplorable practice of child marriage in her society, she was being denied an opportunity to live with dignity and respect by earning her livelihood through an appointment in state civil services for which she is eligible and has cleared requisite screening tests.
dhananjay.mahapatra@timesgroup.com
Should victim of child marriage be debarred from service?
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Should victim of child marriage be debarred from service?
