In a brazen violation of child marriage prevention law, a Supreme Court lawyer showed the age of an 11-year-old girl to be 18 in an affidavit to facilitate her marriage, documents show.
The case later reached the court after gaining attention on Facebook. The Dhaka District Legal Aid Office placed the girl and her baby in her mother’s custody, but no action has yet been taken over the child marriage.
The lawyer has denied the allegation, while Bangladesh Bar Council said it would take action if a complaint was filed against him.
Although court documents record the girl’s current age as 13, marriage documents put her age at 20. A review found that seven years had been added to her age through an affidavit by Supreme Court lawyer Md Azimul Haque Chowdhury.
According to court documents, Md Shakil Mia secretly took the girl from her home on 11 April 2025. Their marriage was registered on 14 July.
Before the marriage, Azimul issued an affidavit declaring that the girl was 18. A purported “court marriage” was then conducted with a Tk2 lakh kabin.
The kabinnama recorded Shakil’s age as 21, listing his date of birth as 17 July 2004, while the girl’s date of birth was shown as 5 March 2006.
Denying involvement, Azimul told TIMES of Bangladesh, “This marriage was conducted by a kazi. This is because there is no law in Bangladesh allowing marriage through a notary public.”
When told that he had submitted the affidavit showing the girl as 18, he said, “I don’t know anything about these.”
His signature, however, appears on the notarised document, which also carries his chamber address.
Asked about the matter, Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association President AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon said, “If a complaint is lodged with the Bar Council, we will take action.”
Shakil claimed that documents given to him for the marriage showed the girl as 18 but said he later saw her age as 13 in court now.
The girl’s mother said she had opposed the marriage because her daughter was underage and only a Class VII student at the time.
Registration through a kazi is mandatory for Muslim marriages. In 2019, the Ministry of Law prohibited the registration of marriages and divorces through notarial affidavits.
On 1 July, the girl’s family alleged that she had been thrown out of the in-laws’ house after being forced to leave her six-month-old child behind. The Dhaka District Legal Aid Office ordered the accused to appear before it.
When the boy’s family failed to do so, Chawkbazar Police Station was instructed to rescue the child.
Lawyer Mrinal Kanti Mitraj, representing the girl, alleged that she had been lured away with the promise of being shown a shooting spot before being confined and abused.
He claimed that her signature had been taken on blank stamp paper and later used as a marriage document, and that she had also been subjected to physical and mental abuse.
The girl’s father said he had told Shakil that he would consider the marriage once his daughter reached the appropriate age. Shakil, however, took her away several times without telling the family where the marriage had taken place.
Appearing before the court, Shakil claimed that they had met through Facebook and that the girl had pressured him to take her away and made a threat if he refused. He said that was why he married her.
Last Tuesday, Dhaka District Legal Aid Officer Md Sayem Khan ordered that the 13-year-old girl and her baby be placed in her mother’s custody.
Sayem said he could hardly believe that she had a child because she was herself still a child.
He said, “Since the child has been brought before the court, considering the humanitarian aspect, she will remain with her mother for the time being.”
