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Court said that Arya Samaj Apex Body now has to make stringent rules and procedures to verify the credentials of prospective bride and groom, especially when they are on run from their respective families.
The Allahabad High Court recently directed Arya Samaj, Krishna Nagar, Prayagraj to not solemnise any marriage where the proposed groom and bride have no consent from their families for a period of two months i.e till June 20, 2023.
The said Arya Samaj had issued a marriage certificate to a man against whom a case was lodged by the family of the girl alleging that he had enticed away the girl and had forced her to marry him.
The marriage certificate issued by the Arya Samaj to the couple did not indicate as to how age of the girl was verified. It was the claim of the family of the girl that she was a minor, however, the accused had claimed that she was an adult.
"It was the duty of Arya Samaj Krishna Nagar, Prayagraj that before solemnizing marriage, it should be carefully verified whether they are solemnizing marriage between two adult persons or not. It amounts to a child marriage which was opposed by Swami Dayanand Saraswati Ji," Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery observed while restricting the Arya Samaj Mandir from conducting any more marriages.
Apart that, court directed the apex body of Arya Samaj i.e. ‘Sarvadeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha’ at New Delhi to propose a guideline with the object to avoid Arya Samaj Mandir to be part of ‘child marriage’.
For this purpose, court asked the President, Sarvadeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha to have a discussion/consultation with stakeholders, Senior Arya Samajists, etc., and prepare a guideline/report.
The court directed the said report to be submitted before it within a period of eight weeks from the date of the present order.
Furthermore, court laid down inter alia some suggestions and directions for Arya Samaj institutions that solemnise marriages as follows:
1. A checklist of essential documents be prepared and a mechanism be developed to cross-check veracity and genuineness of documents to verify the age of the proposed couple and in case of any doubt, marriage may not be solemnized.
2. A mechanism be developed to ascertain whether any criminal proceedings are initiated against the groom or bride and whether any age of boy or girl is disclosed therein or not.
3. A counselling be proposed to couples so that they may not enter into any criminal act i.e solemnizing a marriage before reaching marriageable age.
4. Format of the marriage certificate be modified to include details of parentage, details of proof of age, and details of witnesses with their ID proof. They may be required to file an affidavit also.
5. Or any other measure, which would be appropriate to stop child marriage
“Prevention is better than Cure”, the single-judge bench said while passing the order.
The court was essentially dealing with the bail application of the man facing charges under Sections 363, 366, 376(3) of the I.P.C. and 3/4 of the POCSO Act. Court rejected the bail plea while observing that the date of birth of the girl was disputed and there was a possibility that the man could influence her, if released on bail.
Case Title: Pappu v. State of UP and Others
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