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Allahabad HC quashes case against man lodged by wife’s father
The Allahabad high court has criticized parents in India for filing false criminal cases against their child's spouse in love marriages. The court quashed criminal proceedings against a man and expressed anguish over the societal pressure that leads parents to oppose such marriages. The court stated that this is a dark face of society that still exists even after 75 years of independence. The court emphasized that when both parties have agreed and are living happily together, there should be no impediment in accepting the marriage.
The Allahabad high court has observed that it is the dark face of society that even today, girls’ parents, who disapprove of their children’s love marriages, resort to filing FIRs against her partner under family and societal pressure.
The court pulled up parents for not accepting their daughter’s love marriage and filing FIR against their son-in-law.
Quashing the criminal proceedings against a man, the court expressed its anguish that there are parents in India who still go to the extent of filing false criminal cases to oppose a marriage entered into by their child without their approval.
Allowing a petition filed by one Sagar Savita, justice Prashant Kumar quashed the entire criminal proceedings pending against him at a court of Jalaun, in Orai, observing, “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 of the marriage and go to the extent of filing FIR against the boy. The court, after hearing the parties, records its deepest anguish, whereby this social menace is deep rooted that even after 75 years of independence we are fighting cases with his opponents on this score only”.
The court made these observations while hearing a petition filed by a man to quash the entire proceedings of a case lodged against him under sections- 363 (kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping or adducing a woman to compel her for marriage) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 7/8 of the POCSO Act at the instance of his wife’s father.
During the course of hearing, the petitioner-husband’s counsel submitted before the court that this man had married the woman, who is opposite party in this case and were living together as husband-wife, and since her father was not happy with their marriage, he lodged an FIR against the applicant and after investigation, a chargesheet had been filed and a summon had been issued against him.
The court, while relying on the apex court’s judgement in the case of Mafat Lal and Another Vs state of Rajasthan 2022, observed, “This societal resistance is the greatest impediment in our society but the requirement of law is that when both 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.”
Noting that the applicant and the opposite party no 3 – the woman – are living together happily as husband and wife, the court in its judgement dated January 30, opined that no useful purpose would be served in prosecuting the applicant.
