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| 'Caste system is curse on nation': HC directs protection to couple | | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Jan 4: Jammu and Kashmir high court has ordered authorities to "ensure protection of life and liberty" of a newly wedded couple as it referred to apex court's judgment calling "the caste system as a curse on the nation." A bench of Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur passed the directions while disposing of a petition by filed by Farooq Ahmad Sheikh and Rubeena Maqbool. The court passed the orders after Rubeena stated that she has attained the age of majority and has married with Sheikh of her own free will and without any undue threat or coercion. The couple stated that despite having married each other with their own free will and consent, 'family through the agency of police' may try to harass them and get them framed in 'false cases'. The court also perused the documents reflecting the marriage of the couple and the documents which showed both to be major. "In similar circumstances where parties had entered into wedlock of their own free will and volition, the Supreme Court has held: "This case reveals a shocking state of affairs. There is no dispute that the petitioner is a major and was at all relevant times a major. Hence she is free to marry anyone she likes or live with anyone she likes. There is no bar to an inter-caste marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act or any other law. Hence, we cannot see what offence was committed by the petitioner, her husband or her husband's relatives." The caste system, the court said, is a curse on the nation and the sooner it is destroyed the better. "In fact, it is dividing the nation at a time when we have to be united to face the challenges before the nation unitedly. This is a free and democratic country, and once a person becomes a major he or she can marry whosoever he/she likes." If the parents of the boy or girl do not approve of such inter caste or inter religious marriage the maximum they can do is that they can cut off social relations with the son or the daughter, but they cannot give threats or commit or instigate acts of violence and cannot harass the person who undergoes such inter caste or interreligious marriage, the court had said and directed that the administration/police authorities throughout the country to see to it that if any boy or girl who is a major undergoes inter-caste or inter religious marriage are not harassed by any one nor subjected to threats or acts of violence. Anyone who gives such threats or harasses or commits acts of violence either himself or at his instigation, the court said, shall be taken to task by instituting criminal proceedings by the police against such persons and "further stern action is taken against such persons as provided by law." |
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