RIGHT TO CHOOSE :‘At 18, girl can pick hubby’ : Parents Can’t Say No, Can Only Cut Ties : Supreme Court

If you are a girl and over the age of 18 years, this is for you. The Supreme Court on Monday outlined her freedom in choosing her life partner and warned parents not to use force to interfere with her decision.

“India is a free country and girls after attaining majority have the right to choose their life partner. They have the freedom to exercise their right to choose their partner,” said a vacation Bench comprising Justices Markandey Katju and Deepak Verma.

When the case relating to an inter-community marriage between 19-year-old Anjum and 24-year-old Khemraj was mentioned before the Bench for an early hearing, it said that the parental opposition to the girl’s choice could not be expressed in violent terms.

“They cannot confine her, torture her or use any kind of force on her if she was a major,” the Bench.

The couple, hailing from J&K, were married in Delhi on March 26 with the help of an NGO run by former chairperson of National Commission for Women Mohini Giri. But, learning about the elopement of his daughter, the girl’s father lodged a kidnapping case against Khemraj with the J&K police.

When it came looking for the boy to arrest him, the couple approached the SC and got a stay on his arrest. They have sought quashing of kidnapping charge.

Justice Katju, while expediting the hearing of the case, said: “If the parents of a boy or a girl do not approve of an inter-caste or inter-community marriage, the maximum they can do is to cut off social relations with the son or the daughter, but they cannot give threats or commit or instigate acts of violence and cannot harass the person who opts for inter-caste or inter-religious marriage.”
Source:- The Times of India19 May 2009 P. 13 Delhi
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