Hyderabad: The Telangana government has decided to take strict action against the Qazis who perform marriages of young Muslim girls. The Waqf Board has been instructed to enter the details of all marriages online.
The government has taken this decision after receiving complaints about young girls being married to Arab nationals. To ensure the prevention of child marriages, the Aadhaar cards of bride and groom have been made mandatory for marriages and restrictions have been imposed on conducting marriages on the basis of any other identity card.
The Qazis have been instructed to identify whether the bride and groom are adults or not on the basis of Aadhaar card. Instruction has been given to submit the details of marriages to the Waqf Board immediately after marriage, failing which legal action can be taken against Qazis and those involved.
Earlier, the Qazis used to be appointed by the Department of Minority Welfare, but now a slight change has been made in it. The District Collector will review the application and submit its recommendation to the department.
Apart from this, orders have been issued to keep the marriage certificate available online. As of now, all matters of marriage are done in writing. Wherever the marriage takes place across the state, one has to approach the Haj House of Hyderabad to get the marriage certificate.
Chairman of Waqf Board Muhammad Masihullah Khan said that Telangana is the only state in the country where all details of Muslim marriages are registered online. Apart from past marriages, all current marriages are registered in the Waqf Board. This is helping a lot in preventing fraudulent practices.
