Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Sunday said that his government will look into a proposal to make parental consent mandatory for love marriages, PTI reported.
At an event in Mehsana district, Patel said that state Health Minister Rushikesh Patel had told him about the need to study incidents of young women eloping to make the consent of parents necessary for marriage
“If the Constitution supports it, then we will carry out a study regarding this and try to get the best result for this,” he said.
Patel’s comments came four months after Congress MLA Geniben Thakor and Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Fatesinh Chauhan had demanded an amendment to the Gujarat Registration of Marriages Act to include parental consent.
The two MLAs had also demanded that the law be changed to make it mandatory for love marriages to be registered in the taluka where the woman lives in the presence of witnesses.
Meanwhile, Congress MLA Imran Khedawala on Monday wrote to Patel, supporting his decision.
“The family of the girl breaks down and is not able to face the society when she runs away from the house,” he told The Indian Express. “Parents raise their children, so their consent should be made mandatory. Many such cases have been brought to me, where girls eloped against the wishes of their parents and later regretted it.”
Khedawala also demanded that a bill be introduced to amend the law in the upcoming Monsoon Session of the Gujarat Assembly. “It is important to bring this bill, because children are not under control of their parents these days,” he added. “They have become callous.”
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