The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA) and the POCSO Act prevail over personal laws, including Shariat Law; the minimum age of marriage for all citizens, regardless of religion, is governed by the PCMA.

JUDGMENT :

1. This writ petition has been instituted with a prayer that the First Information Report (for short, 'FIR') dated 15.02.2026, giving rise to Crime No. 54 of 2026, under Sections 191(2), 132, 121(1), 352 and 351(2) of theBharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 ('BNS', in short), Police Station Kakor, District Bulandshahr, be quashed.

2. The petitioners are nineteen in number. The FIR in this case has been lodged by Sub-Inspector Vinay Kumar, posted at P.S. Kakor, District Bulandshahr. The FIR is about the Police and the Child Line Team endeavouring to prevent the petitioners from going ahead with the marriage of a minor, Sonam daughter of Taufiq and the offence that was allegedly committed by the petitioners, vis-a-vis the police personnel and the Child Line Team as they went about the enterprise of preventing this child marriage. According to the Sub-Inspector Vinay Kumar, in his FIR addressed to the Station House Officer, P.S. Kakor, District Bulandshahr, he has said that the informant along with the In-charge of the Child Line Team, Bulandshahr, Abhishek Kumar, Neeraj Kumar Sharma, case worker, Km. Gulista, case worker and Sub-Inspector Dhani Ram, also from P.S. Kakor, Bulandshahr, proceeded together to Village Sunpeda Baksuwa, the place about which they had received information of the impending child marriage of Sonam daughter of Taufiq aged about 16 years. They left P.S. Kakor vide G.D. Entry No.18 dated 15.02.2026 at 11.29 a.m. Their object was to prevent the child marriage. They reached the victim's house in Village Sunpeda Baksuwa and members of the Child Line Team spoke to Sonam's parents, besides the victim herself. After inquiries into the matter, the members of the Child Line Team disclosed their intention of producing her before the Child Welfare Committee, Bulandshahr, and asked the victim and her parents to come along with them for the purpose of the aforesaid production. Thereupon, men and women present there, nineteen of whom are named and are the writ petitioners here, besides fifty others unknown, abused the Police and the Child Line Team personnel, threatened them and forcibly took away the victim from the custody of Km. Gulista of the Child Line Committee.

3. The Police and members of the Child Line Team, facing aggression of the petitioners, somehow escaped in order to save their life. This act of the petitioners, according to the informant, constituted obstruction in the discharge of duties by a public servant. The Police and the Child Line Team, tiding over these odds, somehow managed to rescue Sonam and in the safekeeping of Km. Gulista (Member, Child Line Team), brought her away. The nineteen of the petitioners are nominated in the FIR, as already said, besides the fifty other offenders, whose identity could not be ascertained. It is said by the first informant that he has video-graphed the entire occurrence, which is available with him. It is on these allegations that the impugned FIR has been registered against the petitioners.

4. Heard Ms. Pooja, learned Counsel for the petitioners in support of the motion to admit this petition to hearing and Mr. Ghanshyam Kumar, learned Additional Government Advocate-I along with Mr. Shashi Shekhar Tiwari, learned Additional Government Advocate, who have opposed the motion.

5. Ms. Pooja, learned Counsel for the petitioners, has been at pains to show to us that under the Shariat Law applicable to Muslims, a girl, after she attains the age of puberty generally regarded as 15 years, is competent to marry. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 (for short, 'the PCMA') would not affect the persona