K’taka politician’s daughter moves SC
Says Parents Married Her Off Without Consent
TIMES NEWS NETWORK 12.04.2018
New Delhi: A Karnataka politician’s daughter, who ran away from her Kalaburagi home 20 days after she was forcibly married off to a man without her consent, moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Within hours, the court asked Delhi police to ensure her protection.
At 10.30am on Wednesday morning, counsel Sunil Fernandes sought urgent hearing of her petition and a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud agreed to hear it at 2pm.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising said the 26-year-old woman was physically and mentally tortured by her parents and her brother, who even threatened to rape her if she intended to marry her lover instead of the groom chosen by the family, into the marriage on March 14.
The marriage took place despite her complaint to police, she said. Jaising showed the text message sent by the woman to police and to the groom, clearly conveying that she was not interested in marrying him.
Jaising said it was a reverse of the Hadiya case, referring to the recent SC judgment protecting a girl’s choice to marry a Muslim man despite efforts to terminate the alliance by her Hindu parents.
“In this case, she does not want to live with the man the parents have chosen and forced her through physical abuse to undergo the marriage rituals. This is a void marriage as she had not consented to the marriage,” Jaising said.
She said in the Hindu Marriage Act, there was no specific reference to valid consent from a woman to marriage and the SC must declare that any marriage performed under the Hindu law or customs must have a valid consent from the woman.
But the CJI-led bench said this petition at best was in the nature of habeas corpus for protection of the 26-year-old electronics and communication engineer who did not intend to go to her matrimonial or parental home.
“We are not getting into deciding the constitutional validity of provisions of Hindu Marriage Act as it is not germane to the subject matter in the petition. We are also not concerned with codification of Hindu marriage rituals as that is in the domain of Parliament. On our part, we will always protect any woman from being forced to go anywhere against her will. If the petitioner wants to annul the marriage, she can approach a civil court and seek a divorce decree. Otherwise, no one can force her to go either to her parental or matrimonial home,” CJI Misra said.
The bench asked additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta to convey to Delhi police to give her protection and sought responses from the girl’s parents, brother and husband by May 4. It also asked Karnataka’s additional advocate general Devadatt Kamat to give the state’s response.
SEEKING JUSTICE: Senior advocate Indira Jaising told the Supreme Court bench that the 26-year-old woman was physically and mentally tortured by her parents and her brother, who even threatened to rape her if she intended to marry her lover
Says Parents Married Her Off Without Consent
TIMES NEWS NETWORK 12.04.2018
New Delhi: A Karnataka politician’s daughter, who ran away from her Kalaburagi home 20 days after she was forcibly married off to a man without her consent, moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Within hours, the court asked Delhi police to ensure her protection.
At 10.30am on Wednesday morning, counsel Sunil Fernandes sought urgent hearing of her petition and a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud agreed to hear it at 2pm.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising said the 26-year-old woman was physically and mentally tortured by her parents and her brother, who even threatened to rape her if she intended to marry her lover instead of the groom chosen by the family, into the marriage on March 14.
The marriage took place despite her complaint to police, she said. Jaising showed the text message sent by the woman to police and to the groom, clearly conveying that she was not interested in marrying him.
Jaising said it was a reverse of the Hadiya case, referring to the recent SC judgment protecting a girl’s choice to marry a Muslim man despite efforts to terminate the alliance by her Hindu parents.
“In this case, she does not want to live with the man the parents have chosen and forced her through physical abuse to undergo the marriage rituals. This is a void marriage as she had not consented to the marriage,” Jaising said.
She said in the Hindu Marriage Act, there was no specific reference to valid consent from a woman to marriage and the SC must declare that any marriage performed under the Hindu law or customs must have a valid consent from the woman.
But the CJI-led bench said this petition at best was in the nature of habeas corpus for protection of the 26-year-old electronics and communication engineer who did not intend to go to her matrimonial or parental home.
“We are not getting into deciding the constitutional validity of provisions of Hindu Marriage Act as it is not germane to the subject matter in the petition. We are also not concerned with codification of Hindu marriage rituals as that is in the domain of Parliament. On our part, we will always protect any woman from being forced to go anywhere against her will. If the petitioner wants to annul the marriage, she can approach a civil court and seek a divorce decree. Otherwise, no one can force her to go either to her parental or matrimonial home,” CJI Misra said.
The bench asked additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta to convey to Delhi police to give her protection and sought responses from the girl’s parents, brother and husband by May 4. It also asked Karnataka’s additional advocate general Devadatt Kamat to give the state’s response.
SEEKING JUSTICE: Senior advocate Indira Jaising told the Supreme Court bench that the 26-year-old woman was physically and mentally tortured by her parents and her brother, who even threatened to rape her if she intended to marry her lover
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