72 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
(24)
Guardianship in marriage
24. Priority among guardians in marriage. —(1) Subject to the provisions of Part IV, wherever the consent of a guardian in marriage is necessary under this Part the persons entitled to give such consent shall be the following in the order specified hereunder, namely,—
(1) the father,
(2) the mother,
(3) the brother,
(4) any other relative, the nearer being preferred to the more remote.
Explanation. —In determining which of the two relatives is nearer for the purposes of entry (4) above, the test shall be, which of them is first entitled to inherit to the ward’s heritable properly according to the rules of intestate succession in Part VII.
(2) No person shall be entitled to act as a guardian in marriage under the provisions of this section unless such person has himself completed his or her twenty first year.
(3) Whether any person entitled to be the guardian in marriage under the foregoing provisions refuses or is by reason of absence, disability or other cause, unable or unfit, to act as such, the person next in order shall be entitled to be the guardian in marriage.
(4) Nothing in this Part shall affect the jurisdiction of a court to prohibit by injunction and intended marriage arranged by the guardian in marriage, if in the interests of the minor, the court thinks it necessary to do so.