Marriage of underage couple deemed invalid
A township government declared the “marriage” of a teenage couple invalid on Sunday and ordered the “bridegroom” and “bride” to return to their own homes in the Shantou special economic zone’s Chaoyang district.
The Guiyu township government said it launched an investigation when it learned from a video posted online that a local boy “married” a girl after organizing a wedding ceremony in the remote village of Fengxin in eastern Guangdong province on Thursday.
“After a thorough investigation, the bridegroom, surnamed Lu, is a local senior high school dropout who is only 17, while the bride, surnamed Zhuang, is a 13- year- old junior high school dropout in a neighboring village,” the government said in statement released on Sunday.
“Neither has reached their legal ages for marriage. But they held a wedding ceremony after having dated for some time in the village according to local customs, telling their fellow villagers about their marriage.”
It said the “new couple” had not registered their marriage at the local civil affairs department.
Ye Shibao, a partner at the ETR Law Firm in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, said the couple had violated laws and regulations. According to Chinese law, the legal age for marriage is 22 for men and 20 for women.
“Therefore, their marriage is invalid, even though it had been approved by their parents,” Ye said on Sunday.
Even if they had tried, no marriage registration department would have granted a marriage certificate to them, he said.
Ye added that Lu might have committed a criminal offense if he had sex with the girl, a minor regarded as psychologically and physiologically immature.
The parents of the bridegroom said they did not know they had violated laws and regulations, adding that the youngsters loved each other. They met via the internet, according to an online video posted on pearvideo. com.
“The wedding was mainly organized by the grandparents,” the boy’s parents said. “Now we have allowed the bride to go home.”
The parents are also suspected of violating laws and regulations, and Ye said government departments had the right to conduct further investigations.
According to the Law on the Protection of Minors, no parents or guardians are allowed to approve a marriage by minors or force them to marry, Ye said.
Government departments have provided psychological counseling to both children to help them better understand the concept of marriage and to try to persuade them to return to school, the government statement said.
Their parents are poorly educated and lack legal awareness, it said.
Meanwhile, the Guiyu government has joined hands with the Chaoyang district bureaus of civil affairs, education and public security to launch districtwide campaigns against breaches of the country’s marriage laws, the statement added.
Neither has reached their legal ages for marriage. But they held a wedding ceremony after having dated for some time in the village according to local customs.”
Guiyu township government explaining the case, in which a 17- year- old boy and a 13- yearold girl were “married”