Without hounding couples, society must learn to accept intercaste, interfaith marriages: SC

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

A bench of justices SK Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy noted that it would “hardly be a desirable

NEW DELHI:

social exercise” for parents to shun their children only because they decided to marry outside their caste or community.

The bench — which was hearing a case of an inter-caste marriage from Karnataka in which the couple approached the top court seeking protection from a criminal case lodged by the woman’s father — 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. The judges also emphasised the need for specific guidelines and a training module for policemen to deal with such “socially sensitive cases”.

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.

The top court regretted that the parents of the woman opposed their daughter’s choice even though both the man and the woman were highly qualified, independent professionals and Hindus, but not of the same caste or from the same state.→p15