The Allahabad Excessive Courtroom has quashed an FIR lodged in opposition to a Muslim man over a wedding with a Hindu girl, ruling that she had a proper to reside her life on her personal phrases. Upholding the interfaith marriage in a case from Uttar Pradesh’s Etah district, a bench of Justice Pankaj Naqvi and Vivek Agarwal mentioned the girl is an grownup in accordance with her highschool certificates.

It mentioned the girl, Shikha, has the appropriate to reside life in accordance with her personal needs and phrases and he or she has expressed her need to stick with her husband. The bench mentioned she is free to take action. The judgment was delivered on December 18 on a habeas corpus petition.

The Kotwali Dehat police in Etah district had registered a case in September in opposition to the person, Salman alias Karan, underneath part 366 of the Indian Penal Code, which offers with “inducing” or abducting a girl to compel her into marriage.

On December 7, Etah’s Chief Judicial Justice of the Peace ordered that Shikha must be handed over to the kid welfare committee. The committee then despatched her to her dad and mom the following day in opposition to her needs.

The excessive courtroom mentioned the Chief Judicial Justice of the Peace’s order and motion of the kid welfare committee didn’t comply with authorized provisions. Shikha was produced earlier than the excessive courtroom on its instructions. The courtroom mentioned that in accordance with the highschool certificates, her date of beginning is October 4, 1999 and he or she is an grownup.

The matter got here up earlier than the excessive courtroom in opposition to the backdrop of a flurry of instances registered by the UP Police underneath the state’s new ordinance which punishes “forcible” or “fraudulent” spiritual conversions, together with these involving marriages. The Etah case, nevertheless, was registered earlier than the brand new legislation got here into being.