Sanjay Kumar and Another v. State of U.P. and 9 Others

Court No. - 44

Case :- WRIT - C No. - 12001 of 2020

Petitioner :- Sanjay Kumar And Another Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 9 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Pavan Kumar Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.

Hon'ble Ashwani Kumar Mishra,J.

This petition has been filed by the petitioners for a direction upon the respondents not to interfere with their marital life and liberty. It is claimed that both petitioner nos.1 and 2 are major and have solemnized marriage out of their own free will. It is alleged that private respondent/s is interfering with their marital life and liberty.

Law is settled that it is the right of married couple to live peacefully without any interference in case they are major. Hon'ble Supreme Court in Lata Singh Vs. State of U.P., AIR 2006 SC 2522 has already issued following directions in para17 which reads as Under:-

"The caste system is a curse on the nation and the sooner it is destroyed the better. In fact, it is dividing the nation at a time when we have to be united to face the challenges before the nation unitedly. Hence, inter-caste marriages are in fact in the national interest as they will result in destroying the caste system. However, disturbing news are coming from several parts of the country that young men and women who undergo inter-caste marriage, are threatened with violence, or violence is actually committed on them. In our opinion, such acts of violence or threats or harassment are wholly illegal and those who commit them must be severely punished. This is a free and democratic country, and once a person becomes a major he or she can marry whosoever he/she likes. If the parents of the boy or girl do not approve of such inter-caste or inter-religious marriage the maximum they can do is that they can cut off social relations with the son or the daughter, but they cannot give threats or commit or instigate acts of violence and cannot harass the person who undergoes such inter-caste or inter- religious marriage. We, therefore, direct that the administration/police authorities throughout the country will see to it that if any boy or girl who is a major undergoes inter-caste or inter-religious marriage with a woman or man who is a major, the couple are not harassed by any one nor subjected to threats or acts of violence, and any one who gives such threats or harasses or commits acts of violence either himself or at his instigation, is taken to task by instituting criminal proceedings by the police against such persons and further stern action is taken against such persons as provided by law."