Inter-caste marriages will possibly reduce caste and community tensions: SC

Intercaste marriages will possibly reduce caste and community tensions the Supreme Court has said while noting that educated younger boys and girls are now a days choosing their life partners which is a departure from earlier societal normsThe top court said that youngsters face threats from the elders and the courts have been coming to the aid of these youngstersIt said the way forward to the police authorities is to counsel the Investigating Officers IO and lay down some guidelines and training programmes on how to handle such socially sensitive casesThe remarks came by a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy which quashed an FIR lodged by the parents of the girl who had married a boy of her choice against the wishes of elders at Belgavai district of KarnatakaThe top court in its recent verdict said that it hopes that the parents of the girl will have a better sense to accept the marriage and reestablish social interaction not only with her but even with her husbandldquoThat in our view is the only way forward Under the garb of caste and community to alienate the child and the soninlaw will hardly be a desirable social exerciserdquo the bench told the parents of the girl who has sought quashing of the FIR lodged against herThe top court said ldquoEducated younger boys and girls are choosing their life partners which in turn is a departure from the earlier norms of society where caste and community play a major role Possibly this is the way forward where caste and community tensions will reduce by such inter marriage but in the meantime these youngsters face threats from the elders and the Courts have been coming to the aid of these youngstersrdquoReferring to earlier verdicts of the top courts the bench said it has been held that the consent of the family or the community or the clan is not necessary once the two adult individuals agree to enter into wedlock and that their consent has to be piously given primacyThe bench said it has been held in the 2017 verdict of the top court that the choice of an individual is an ldquoinextricable part of dignity for dignity cannot be thought of where there is erosion of choicerdquoldquoIntimacies of marriage lie within a core zone of privacy which is inviolable and even matters of faith would have the least effect on them The right to marry a person of choice was held to be integral to Article 21 of the Constitution of Indiardquo the bench noted while referring to Hadiya case verdict of 2018Justice Kaul who penned down the verdict on behalf of the bench said that the intervention of this Court would really not have been required in the given facts of the case if the investigating officer had conducted himself more responsibly in closing the complaintldquohellipif the investigating officer really wanted to record the statement of the petitioner No1 girl should have informed that he would visit her and recorded the statement instead of putting her under threat of action against petitioner No2 boy to come to the police stationrdquo the bench saidThe bench said that it does not reflect very well on the police authorities or the IO of the case as the marriage certificate having been received by him and the conversation already been held with the girl where she clearly stated that she was married to the boy and that she was feeling threatened and apprehensive of coming to the police stationldquoIf the IO could have visited the residence of petitioner No2 boy he could very well have recorded the statement of petitioner No1girl at the place where the petitioners were residing rather than insisting and calling upon the petitioners to come to the local police station at Karnatakardquo it saidThe bench said that the IO undoubtedly sought to compel the girl to come and record the statement at police station on the threat of possibility of a false case being registered by her parents against the boy and the consequent action of the police which would result in his arrestldquoWe strongly deprecate the conduct of the IO in adopting these tactics and the officer must be sent for counselling as to how to manage such casesrdquo the bench saidIt said that the way forward to the police authorities is to not only counsel the current IOs but devise a training programme to deal with such cases for the benefit of the police personnelWe expect the police authorities to take action on this behalf in the next eight weeks to lay down some guidelines and training programmes on how to handle such socially sensitive cases the bench saidThe bench noted that both the petitioners are well educated and the boy is an MTech from NIT Tiruchirapalli and got a placement as an Assistant Professor in Jain College of Engineering Belagavi while his wife is an MA BEd and was a Lecturer in a CollegeIt noted that there was resistance from the parents of the girl though the parents of the boy were willing for the matrimony of both the well qualified petitioners who are majors and Hindu by religionThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever