Private Member Bill to make 18 years as minimum age for marriage

• SLPP MP Pramitha Bandara Tennakoon hands over 3 Private Member Bills
• Bills seek to amend Marriage Registration Ordinance and Civil Procedure Code (Section 627)

SLPP Matale District MP Pramitha Bandara Tennakoon has handed over three Private Member Bills to introduce a minimum age of 18 years for marriage in Sri Lanka, as well as to amend the Marriage Registration Ordinance and the Civil Procedure Code (Section 627).

The three Bills have been published in the Government Gazette and can be presented to Parliament next month.

The proposed Minimum Age of Marriage Act No. of 2020 makes it illegal to contract a marriage unless both parties to the marriage have completed 18 years of age.

The amendment proposed to the Marriage Registration Ordinance No. 19 of 1907 seeks to amend it by removing the words “other than the marriage of Muslims and” while the amendment to Section 627 of the Civil Procedure Code seeks to amend it by removing the words “between persons professing Islam” and replace such words with the words “contracted in terms of the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act”.