In past month-and-a-half, it has sent 6 girls over 18 and less than 21 back to parents.
Here’s a warning, girls. Not yet 21, and thinking marriage? In the past one-and-a-half months, in six cases, the high court of Karnataka has asked girls who are over 18 but less than 21 years of age to return to their parents’ home, after being ‘married’.
The legally permissible age for marriage for women, under the Constitution, is 18 years.
Girls over 18 years but less than 21 years of age were produced in court, and told to go with their parents. Evidence of marriage—photographs showing the exchange of garlands and tying of the marital knot — have not helped.
In all these cases, the judgment cited was issued in the high court on May 12, 2011: “We have seen many cases of run-away love marriages and untold misery and hardship of the parents and the girls. All the love marriages are not successful. In the event of failure of the love marriage of the girl, it is the girl and her parents who have to suffer…The girls, later on, realise their mistake that they were hasty in love marriage and repent at leisure. (sic)”
This was the text of the judgment signed by justices K Bhakthavatsala and K Govindarajulu as they heard the petition of a resident of Sudhamanagar, Avinash.
The man had pleaded that the court issue a writ of habeas corpus, directing the father of the girl to produce before the court his ‘legally wedded wife,’ Sanghavi.
Avinash and Sanghavi had married on March 2, 2011, without the consent of their parents.
The father of the girl lodged a missing person complaint, and Avinash, in a bid to have his ‘wife’ returned to him, had filed another complaint.
However, in that case, Avinash had not turned 21 at the time of the marriage, so had not attained the age when a man could legally wed. Sanghavi too had not turned 18, when a woman is allowed to marry legally.
Delivering a judgment in this case, on May 12, the judges ruled, “In our opinion, the girls below the age of 21 years are not capable of forming a rational judgment... It is relevant to mention that those girls, who are suffering from hormonal imbalance, easily fall prey to the boys and fall in love, marry and repent at leisure... the Hindu Marriage Act does not deal with love marriages ... In our opinion, Parliament had not taken into account the love marriages when the Bill was introduced…”
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