The honourable Supreme Court made a comment on acceptance of inter-caste and inter-faith marriages while hearing a case of inter-caste marriage from Karnataka.
On Tuesday, the Apex Court addressed the adults, stating that they have the right to choose their life partner. It is high time that society learns to accept inter-caste marriages and inter-faith marriages. This statement was made while the esteemed court was hearing a case of interracial marriage from Karnataka.
The SC Bench consisting of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy also said that it would “hardly be a desirable social exercise” for parents to shun their children only because they wanted to spend their life together and decided to get married outside their caste.
The court also emphasized counseling and training for police personnel on how to handle inter-ethnic marriage cases.
“Educated young boys and girls are increasingly choosing their spouses by their own wish and will. It May be seen as an aberration by society and parents, but police officers need to keep such couples away from any harm, If there is no violation of law” said SC.
The Karnataka couple approached the court after the woman’s family filed a case. The woman’s parents had initially reported missing after the couple’s disappearance.
Advocate Prabhat Kumar Rai, representing the couple, said the Belagavi police should not have lodged an FIR in such a case as no cognizable offense was stated in the missing person’s complaint.
The couple belongs to different castes and different states and works as a lecturer in a university. They met in 2018 and left again in 2020 when the woman’s parents did not approve of their relationship.
After their marriage, the couple claimed that they had received threats from the woman’s family as well as the Belagavi police. As the couple was living in Uttar Pradesh, they initially approached the Allahabad High Court for protection, but the case was listed for hearing after more than a month.
