SHC suspends order for medical examination of girl in child marriage case

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday suspended a sessions court order with regard to medico examination of the underage girl in a child marriage case.

The direction came on an application against an additional district and sessions court order with regard to medico examination of the underage girl. Zaheer Ahmed and others were booked by the police for kidnaping an underage girl from Karachi. According to the police, Zaheer kidnapped an underage girl from the Al-Falah Colony area in Karachi with abetment of other co-accused, and married her in Lahore.

A counsel for Zaheer and other co-accused submitted that the sessions court order with regard to the medical examination of the victim was unlawful as it could not be conducted without the consent of the girl. He submitted that a judicial magistrate had earlier dismissed the same application while the victim had herself admitted before the high court that she married of her own free will and was not kidnapped by anyone.

He requested the high court to suspend the impugned order. After the preliminary hearing of the application, the SHC issued notice to the prosecutor general and others, and suspended the impugned order restraining the investigation officer from conducting medical examination of the girl till