BRIJ MOHAN Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an application for writ by Brijmohan and others under Arts. 226 and 227 of the Constitution by which the constitutionality of the Jaipur Prevention of Unequal Marriages Act, 1948 (No. 50 of 1948 ) ( hereinafter called as the Act of 1948 ) has been challenged.

(2.) THE material facts are these. Petitioner No. 1 Brijmohan is the son of the petitioner No. 2 Ramvallabh. Petitioners Nos. 3 and 4 are husband and wife. THE latter agreed to marry their daughter Ramratni Devi to petitioner No. 1 and to that end their betrothal ceremony was performed on the 21st May, 1958. THE marriage was fixed for the 13th December, 1958. On the 27th November, 1958, the opposite party No. 3 Narainlal made an application in the court of opposite party No. 2, a Magistrate of the First Class, Jaipur City, that the marriage between Brijmohan and Ramratni Devi be prohibited under sec. 12 of the Act of 1948 inasmuch as Ramratni Devi was only 14 years old and Brijmohan was 48 years old, and their marriage, in view of the disparity between their ages, fell within the mischief of the Act. THE Magistrate issued an ad interim injunction on the same day and called upon the parties to show cause why the injunction be not made absolute. It was submitted before the Magistrate on behalf of the petitioners that Ramratni Devi had completed 15 years and that the petitioner Brijmohan was 42 years of age. It was also contended before the Magistrate that the Act of 1948 was unconstitutional and void being in contravention of Art. 14 of the Constitution and that it also stood repealed by necessary implication being repugnant with the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. THE learned Magistrate repelled these contentions and made the temporary injunction absolute and gave a further direction to the petitioner not to contract the marriage within the jurisdiction of his court or without it. THE petitioners have consequently come up to this Court with the present writ application and have prayed that the order of the Magistrate be quashed and the Act of 1948 be declared to be unconstitutional and void.