LAHORE; The Lahore High Court (LHC) has set aside a Justice of Peace’s order rejecting a father’s plea to register a criminal case over the alleged marriage of his underage daughter, and has directed police to investigate the matter afresh in light of newly surfaced evidence. Where a cognizable offence is made out, the court said, action must follow under the law.
Justice Munawar Iqbal Dugal issued the order on a petition filed by a Lahore resident, Muhammad Aslam. The petitioner had approached the High Court seeking registration of a case against the man with whom his daughter, Hina Aslam, was claimed to have been married. According to the petition, Hina Aslam’s date of birth is 1 March 2011, which made her about 15 years old at the time of the nikah, and the marriage was to an adult man named Muhammad Luqman.
The court held that under the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act 2026, a marriage in which either party is under the age of 18 is actionable in law. In its reasoning the bench placed the rights, protection and welfare of minors at the centre of the case.
The order matters partly because of where the case had stalled. A Justice of Peace — a sessions judge exercising a specific jurisdiction under the Code of Criminal Procedure — can direct police to register an FIR when they refuse to do so, and is the route most complainants in Punjab take when a police station turns them away. When that route closes, as it did here, the High Court is the only door left. By setting the refusal aside, the bench has effectively sent the complaint back down the chain with instructions to start again from the evidence.
The court noted that the petitioner had already registered a case over his daughter’s alleged abduction, but held that new evidence emerging afterwards may create legal room for a fresh FIR. Police were directed to examine that new evidence and the facts now on record, and to determine in accordance with law whether a punishable offence has been committed.
Addressing an argument that recurs in almost every case of this kind, the court observed that a child’s wishes and opinion carry weight but cannot on their own be treated as decisive in every circumstance, because the law extends special protection to minors. The purpose of child marriage legislation, the judgment stressed, is to secure the rights, safety and welfare of children.
The court also issued a protective direction, ordering that Hina Aslam be handed over to the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau so that her safety, welfare and interests are safeguarded, and instructing the relevant institutions to take immediate and effective steps. Assistant Advocate General Anwar Hussain appeared for the Punjab government.
The judgment reopens a legal route that had been closed at the Justice of Peace stage and gives police in Lahore a clear instruction; look again at the evidence, and let the age of the child, not the paperwork of the marriage, drive the inquiry.
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