COURTESY HT FEB 9

SC: Society must learn to accept intercaste, interfaith marriages
Utkarsh Anand

letters@hindustantimes.com

New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Monday underscored the right of the adults to choose their life partner, and added that it is time society learns to accept inter-caste and inter-faith marriages without hounding the couples.

A Supreme Court bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy futher noted that it would “hardly be a desirable social exercise” for parents to shun their children only because they decided to marry outside their caste or community.

The judges, in their order, also emphasised the need for specific guidelines and a training module for policemen to deal with such “socially sensitive cases”, so that couples can get due protection available to them under the law should the parents lodge criminal cases against them.

It took note that “educated young boys and girls are increasingly choosing their life partner on their own”, which might be viewed as a deviation by the society and the parents, but the police authorities were duty bound to keep such couples out of harm’s way if there was no violation of the law.

The apex court’s comments are significant because they come in the wake of controversial ordinances passed by Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh that can be misused to obstruct inter-faith marriages.