Yes ,the recent news item puts the minimum age of a muslim girl for marriage as 15 years. This is true to some extent in the case of Hanafi school.
2. Once you say 'the legal age' it means the concerned marriage laws have been codified at least regarding the minimum permissible age for the marriage of a muslim girl .
This is a good guideline to follow and the content of this advice is full of good meaning and intentions.We must respect it as such. There must be many many precedents an customs to prompt that report. I am not aware of thse, however.
3. With all humility and quite subject to correction, I would like to say that the age factor as an essential element of a muslm marriage is linked up with " PUBERTY"
4. Puberty means the age at which a person becomes capable od performing s*xual intercourse and procreating children. PUBERTY AND AND MAJORITY ARE IN MUSLIM LAW ONE AND THE SAME THING. The presumption is that a person attains majority at the age of 15 but the HEDAYA lays dowwn the earliest period for a boy is 12 years and for a girl 9 years.
5. Majority is presumed among the HANAFIS on the completion of 15 years in the case of both males and females, unless there is any evidence to show that puberty was attained earlier.
6. In the case of a SHIA girl the age of puberty begins with MENSTRUATION.
7. It has been held by the Privy Council in a a SHIA case that the age of majpority in the case of a girl is attained at the age of NINE YEARS
8. You needn't be afraid of the Khakis. They are equally well versed in Hindu, Muslim and Chrisian Personal Family Laws. They may come only to bless the couple.
(Emphasis added)
Dr Anand Gupta
Amateur legal research
