The Supreme Court has put on hold a Chhattisgarh High Court order directing a 23-year-old woman to undergo a psychiatric test because she married a Muslim man against the wishes of her family.
A vacation bench led by Justice MR Shah earlier this week stayed the high court’s May 15 order, directing it to give a fresh hearing to the petitioner Anjali. The top court said the HC had not heard Anjali personally before directing her to subject herself to a psychiatric evaluation. The HC order was passed on a petition filed by Anjali’s father.
The bench set aside the “ex-parte order” [issued without hearing the other side] after it was told by Anjali’s lawyer, Gaurav Agrawal , that the woman had filed an application seeking to be heard but the high court chose to ignore it. Agrawal argued the HC order violated Anjali’s fundamental right to life and liberty as she was an adult and free to decide her life partner as held by the apex court, including the 2018 Hadiya case from Kerala in which the top court had at one point of time ordered a probe by the National Investigation Agency into the intercommunal marriage between a Hindu girl with a Muslim boy.