Hindu marriage between first cousins illegal: HC
chandigarh — The Punjab and Haryana High Court has said that marriage between first cousins is illegal.
The court said that marriage which the petitioner (man) wants to perform with a girl, who is his first cousin, was also per se illegal.
The assertion came on Thursday after a 21-year-old man moved the high court against state of Punjab seeking anticipatory bail in a case registered under Sections 363 (kidnapping), 366A (procuration of minor girl) of the IPC at police station Khanna City-2 in Ludhiana district on August 18.
The state counsel, while opposing the bail plea, contended that the girl was a minor and her parents had lodged the FIR as she and the man
were first cousins and their fathers were brothers.
The man’s counsel told Justice Arvind Singh Sangwan that the petitioner had also filed a criminal writ petition, along with the girl, for protection of life and liberty. The court file of the criminal writ petition was summoned during the hearing and as per its memorandum of parties, the girl was stated to be 17 years of age and the man had filed the petition with the submission that both of them were in a “live-in-relationship”.
The judge, after hearing counsel for the parties in the present petition, said: “I find that in the present petition also, the petitioner has not disclosed about the fact that he is first cousin of the girl and, therefore, the submission in the present petition that as and when she attains the age of 18 years, they will perform marriage is also per se illegal.”
While opposing the anticipatory bail plea, the state counsel argued “that the girl was aged about 17 years and is a minor, therefore, her parents have got the FIR registered as the youth and the girl are the first cousins as their fathers are real brothers”.
“Hence the petitioner has concealed the fact in the petition that they fall in the prohibited ‘ sapinda’ (which prohibits marriage between two individuals if they have common ancestor) under the Hindu Marriage Act and cannot perform marriage with each other,” the state counsel argued.
“Once the petitioner and the girl are prohibited from performing marriage with each other, there is no question of their being in any live-in-relationship, which is per se immoral and not acceptable in the society,” it was argued. —