Inter-Religion Marriages: Minors eloping to marry does not amount to an offence: Punjab and Haryana High Court: Relying on the judgment of Vivek Kumar vs. State of Delhi, Crl.M.C.No.3073-74/2006, Hon’ble Mahesh Grover, J reiterated that there is no law which prohibits a girl under 18 years from falling in love with someone else, neither falling in love with somebody is an offence under IPC or any other penal law. The Court ruled that right to life and liberty as guaranteed by the Constitution is equally available to minors, and a father has no right to forcibly marry off his daughter, who is below 18 years against her wishes. Neither he has right to kill her, because she intends to marry out of her religion. If a girl around 17 years of age runs away from her parents house to save herself from the onslaught of her father or relatives and joins her lover or runs away with him, it is no offence either on the part of the girl or on the part of boy with whom she ran away and got married. In the present case the couple who had an inter-religion marriage had filed a petition seeking to protect their life and liberty which was in danger as they had married against parental consent. The Court stated that it disinclined to entertain and to go into such allegations, but at the same time it was not oblivious to the fact that because of social friction and sectarian differences such incidents were not entirely unheard of and directed the respondent No. 2 to look into the allegations as contained in the petition personally and take necessary steps in accordance with law. [Saleema vs. State of Punjab, Criminal Miscellaneous No. M 35035 of 2013, decided on 15 October, 2013]
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 06:45:00 +0000
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