Under the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2017, the minimum marriage age is twenty-one for a male and eighteen for a female. A marriage involving a person below the applicable age is a child marriage.
The Act contains a narrowly structured special provision, but it is not a general parental permission. It requires a court direction, prescribed special circumstances, the minor’s best interests and parental or legal-guardian consent, together with the procedure under the 2018 Rules.
Who is a minor for marriage purposes?
Section 2 defines an adult male as a person who has completed twenty-one years and an adult female as a person who has completed eighteen years.
A person below the applicable age is a minor for the purposes of the Act. A child marriage is a marriage in which one or both parties are minors.
These definitions are marriage-specific. Another law may use a different age for another purpose.
Age documents
The Act identifies official documents that may be used to establish age, including specified birth, identity, educational and passport records.
The original or officially verifiable record should be produced. An affidavit created shortly before marriage should not be used to override an authentic birth or educational record.
Where records conflict, the discrepancy should be lawfully corrected before marriage rather than concealed from the Registrar.
Liability of an adult who contracts a child marriage
Section 7 provides that an adult woman or man who contracts a child marriage commits an offence. The punishment may extend to two years’ imprisonment or a fine up to Tk 100,000, or both, according to the current statutory text.
The Act separately addresses the minor party. The minor’s treatment must be read with child-justice protections and the exact wording of section 7 rather than assuming identical criminal consequences for the adult and child.
Parents, guardians and organisers
Section 8 penalises a parent, guardian or other person who promotes, permits or negligently fails to prevent a child marriage in the circumstances covered by the section.
A parent cannot safely avoid liability by claiming that the child insisted on the marriage. The court examines the person’s participation, authority and conduct.
Section 9 penalises a person who solemnises or conducts a child marriage. The current section provides a minimum period of imprisonment and permits imprisonment up to two years, a fine up to Tk 50,000, or both, subject to the exact statutory language.
The Nikah Registrar or other marriage registrar may face additional consequences, including action concerning the registration licence under section 11.
Preventing an impending child marriage
Section 4 empowers specified government officers and local-government representatives to take action when they receive information about a proposed child marriage. The Act also provides preventive orders and proceedings.
A concerned person should provide:
- Names and ages of the proposed parties
- Date and place of the planned marriage
- Available age documents
- Names of parents, guardians and solemniser
- Evidence such as invitations or messages
- Immediate safety concerns
The matter may be reported to the local administration, police, women affairs officials or another officer authorised under the Act.
A person should not physically endanger the child by arranging a confrontation without official support.
Nature of offences
Section 14 classifies offences under the Act as cognizable, bailable and non-compoundable. This means police powers and bail follow those classifications, while the complainant cannot privately terminate the criminal proceeding merely through a settlement.
Private reconciliation does not erase the State’s interest in preventing child marriage.
The special provision under section 19
Section 19 states that a marriage involving a minor will not be treated as an offence under the Act where it occurs in a prescribed special context, is in the minor’s best interests, is directed by a court and occurs with the consent of the parents or legal guardian.
Every requirement matters. Parental consent alone is insufficient. A local official’s informal approval is insufficient. Pregnancy alone is not an automatic statutory permission.
The provision should be treated as exceptional, not as an alternative minimum age.
Procedure under the 2018 Rules
The Child Marriage Restraint Rules, 2018 establish the procedural structure for a section 19 application. The parties, parents or legal guardians submit the prescribed application and supporting materials to the appropriate court.
The court may refer the matter to a verification committee, which investigates whether the proposed marriage genuinely serves the minor’s best interests and reports within the prescribed period. The official gazette identifies the Rules as having been made under the powers of the 2017 Act.
The Rules require scrutiny of coercion and whether the proposed marriage arises from rape, kidnapping or forced sexual relations. They are not intended to convert sexual violence into a marriage solution.
Does a prohibited child marriage become void?
The Act does not contain a broad clause stating that every child marriage is void from the beginning.
This creates an important distinction between criminal prohibition and civil status. A prohibited marriage may expose adults, parents, solemniser and registrar to legal consequences, while questions concerning marital status, dissolution, dower and children may still require analysis under personal law and other statutes.
No one should infer from this distinction that child marriage is legally acceptable. It means only that criminality and civil validity are different legal questions.
Marriages arranged abroad
Where a Bangladeshi minor is taken abroad for marriage, the law of the foreign country may also apply. A marriage that violates local criminal or safeguarding law may create consequences there.
The territorial reach of the Bangladesh Act and the application of Bangladeshi personal law require case-specific analysis. It should not be assumed that travelling abroad automatically avoids the Act or that Bangladesh can prosecute every foreign event without a jurisdictional basis.
Immigration sponsorship does not validate an underage marriage.
International obligations
Bangladesh is a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Child welfare, consent, education, health and protection from exploitation inform the State’s international obligations.
The treaties do not replace the exact domestic criminal procedure, but they reinforce the protective interpretation of the legislation.
Common mistakes
Common mistakes include treating a birth affidavit as conclusive, believing parental consent legalises an underage marriage and describing section 19 as permission whenever pregnancy occurs.
Another mistake is assuming that a marriage abroad cannot create consequences in Bangladesh.
Law updated as of 13 July 2026.
Primary sources: Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2017, sections 2 to 14 and 19; Child Marriage Restraint Rules, 2018, particularly Rule 17; Convention on the Rights of the Child; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
Legal-information disclaimer: This article provides general legal information, not legal advice. A proposed child marriage may require immediate protective action. Contact a licensed advocate, police or an authorised child-marriage-prevention officer.