Karnataka High Court asks man to marry mother of his two children

In the rarest of the rare cases, the high court has asked a man who had a sexual relationship with a woman and has twins out of the same relationship, to marry her in the presence of village heads and inform the court by February 28.

Kumara, a resident of Kannahalli village, T Narasipura Taluk of Mysore district, had filed an appeal in the court challenging the order of passed by the fast track court-V on December 5, 2005. It had passed the order based on the complaint filed by a woman at T Narasipura police station.
She had filed a complaint alleging that Kumara had forced sex with her. Later, the sexual relationship continued as he promised to marry her, but eventually did not. The woman has twin children (a boy and girl ) from the relationship. The two are now ten years of age.

In the complaint, the woman said on November 24, 2002, the college where she studied had declared a holiday and about 12 noon she had lunch in the paddy field where her father used to work. When she reached the spot, she could not find her father. In the meantime, Kumara accosted her from behind.

She shouted for help, but he muffled her screams and had forced sex with her. After the incident she wanted to commit suicide, but Kumara prevented it by promising to marry her. Kumara continued to have forcible sex with her, and the woman soon became pregnant. Kumara implored her to have an abortion, but she refused and urged Kumara to marry her.

When her family came to know what happened, they lodged a complaint with the gram panchayat and with the T Narasipura police on July 1, 2003. Kumara was apprehended and produced before the magistrate the same day.

The fast track court-V of Mysore on December 5, 2005 sentenced Kumara to seven years of rigorous imprisonment, and pay a fine of Rs2000 or undergo RI for one more month. Kumara challenged this verdict in the High Court.

But it was proved that Kumara had a forcible sexual relationship with the woman. Both the children were proven to be his.

Retribution sought for lady who killed hubby
The state government has appealed to the high court to give maximum punishment to  a woman who had allegedly killed her husband and set him on fire inside their house. She was acquitted by the lower court and the state has challenged the order. Saraswathi alias Pallavi , 27, of Kallahalli was acquitted by the sessions judge of the fast track court in Shimoga on April 19, 2012 for the offence under sections 302 and 201 of IPC.  She was facing murder charges.

The state government, in its appeal filed before the high court, alleged that on July 1, 2010, Saraswathi killed her husband Manjunatha with a machete and set him afire in their bedroom. 
Shimoga police registered a case under section 174 of IPC. During the case hearing in the lower court, Manjunatha’s mother had said that although the couple was married just one month ago, the two had a strained relationship.

Manjunatha’s mother said Saraswathi was refusing to cohabit  with her son adding that she was in the house on the day of the murder.  While witnessing the incident, she had screamed. But by the time  the neighbours came to her son’s rescue, he died.

The state government contended that during postmortem, the doctor identified the objects used by the accused for committing the murder. The investigation officer had seized the weapon used for murder after Saraswathi’s confession. The state government sought to set aside the acquittal order of the lower court and wanted the woman to be punished under Sections 302 and 201 of IPC.