Cannot pry into privacy of interfaith couples, says SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday said it will always respect the decision of an adult couple to live together and not investigate a marriage just because the man and the woman belong to different religions.

“As a system and as an institution, we must respect the decision of a couple,” observed a bench of justices UU Lalit and Ajay Rastogi while refusing to entertain a petition by a woman’s parents, who claimed that their daughter, a Hindu, was forcibly converted to Islam and married to a Muslim man against her will.

“As a system, we should not be prying into the privacy of a couple if a man and woman want to live together. We have to respect their decision as adults,”the court remarked, relying on a statement given by the woman to the police officers in

Chandigarh where the couple lived together.

The ruling comes against the backdrop of some states passing laws that make inter-faith marriages difficult -- the Gujarat High Court recently stayed some provisions of a new state law recently on this count -- and the spectre of love-jihad.

The counter-affidavit, filed by advocate Shantanu Sagar for the Union Territory of Chandigarh, attached the statement written by the woman, stating that she is living with the man of her own her free will and there is no coercion. The woman also said that her parents were against this alliance but she got married to the man in January.

THE APEX COURT SAID IF A MAN AND A WOMAN WANT TO LIVE TOGETHER, WE HAVE TO RESPECT THEIR DECISION AS ADULTS