Read Time: 05 minutes

Synopsis

The Allahabad High Court recently took note of "the dark face of our society" where parents, who disapprove of children's love marriages under societal pressure, go to the extent of filing an FIR against the groom.

The bench of Justice Prashant Kumar, while dealing with an application to quash a criminal case by a girl's father against her husband, observed, "This is a clear case of the dark face of our society. Even today, when children who marry on their own, their parents under their family and society's pressure, do not approve the marriage and go to the extent of filing F.I.R. against the boy".

Court expressed its "deepest anguish" and said that this social menace is deeply rooted and that "even after 75 years of independence we are witnessing such cases".

"This is the greatest impediment in our society but the requirement of law is that when both the parties have agreed and now they are happily residing as husband and wife with their small kid, there cannot be any impediment in accepting this marriage," the court held while referring to Top Court's ruling in Mafat Lal and Another Vs. State of Rajasthan [2022].

Referring to another judgment of the Supreme Court in Shafin Jahan v. Asokan K.M (2018), the high court said that "the Apex Court has consistently respected the liberty of an individual who has attained the age of majority".

Therefore, while emphasizing that now the applicant and his wife were living together happily, court held that there would be no useful purpose in prosecuting the applicant. Accordingly, it quashed the case registered against him.

The man had approached the high court by filing an application under Section 482 CrPC seeking direction to quash the entire proceedings in a case registered against him Under Sections 363, 366 of the IPC, and 7/8 of the POCSO Act. 

His counsel submitted that he and the opposite party no. 3 were now living together happily as husband and wife. The submission was supported by the wife's counsel as well. Further, the wife's counsel asserted that the entire case was filed by her father as he was not happy with the couple's marriage.

Case Title: Sagar Savita v. State Of U.P. And 2 Others