Even otherwise, the Apex Court in the case of Shafin Jahan Vs. Asokan K.M. & others reported in 2018 SC 1933 has held that choice of any individual to marry a person is an integral to Article 21 of the Constitution. The Constitution guarantees the right to live and protects the ability of each individual to pursue the way of life or faith to which she or he seeks to adhere. Matters of dress and of foods, of ideas and ideologies, of love and partnership are within the Central aspects of identity. The law may regulate (subject to constitutional compliance) the conditions of a valid marriage, as it may regulate the situations in which a marital tie can be ended or annulled. These remedies are available to parties to a marriage for it is they who decide best on whether they should accept each other into a marital tie or continue in that relationship. Society has no role to play in determining our choice of partners. The Superior Court, when they exercise their jurisdiction (parents patriae) can interfere in the case of persons who are incapable of asserting a free will such as minors or persons of unsound minds. However the exercise of that jurisdiction should not transgress into the area of determining the suitability of partners to a marital tie. That decision rests exclusively with the individuals themselves. Neither the State nor society can intrude into that domain. Intimacies of marriage, including the choices which individuals make on whether or not to marry and on whom to marry, lie outside the control of the State. Courts as upholders of constitutional freedoms must safeguards these freedoms.
