Thu. Mar 28th, 2024
Allahabad High CourtIndia Legal

Synopsis: The Court stated that without any restriction or hindrance being created by third party, she is free to travel as per her own choice.

The Allahabad High Court recently ruled in unequivocal terms that a woman who has reached the age of majority has the right to live her life on her own terms.

After taking into account the fact that the woman had expressed her desire to live with her husband, Salman, the bench of Justices Pankaj Naqvi and Vivek Agarwal went on to provide police protection for the safe passage of an inter-faith couple.

The Court stated that as the corpus (woman) has entered the majority age and she has a choice to live her life on her own terms and she herself has stated that she wants to live with her husband Salman @ Karan, she is free to move without any restriction or hindrance created by third party as per her own choice.

Subsequently, the Court set aside an order issued by the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Etah, who handed the woman’s custody to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), who in turn handed the woman to her parents.

The Court also ordered the Investigating Officer (IO) to provide couple with appropriate protection till they return to their place of residence.

The Court relied on the date of birth referred to in the school certificate, clearly indicating that the woman was born on 4 October 1999.

The CJM relied on the woman’s birth certificate, which was registered in 2019.

However, the High Court stated that the birth certificate would not take precedence over the school certificate under Section 94 of the Juvenile Justice Act.

The Court concluded that the learned vide order of CJM Etah dated 7 December 2020 had handed over the corpus in the custody of CWC, which handed over the custody to her parents without any application of mind and against her wish on 8 December 2020. The CJM, Etah and CWC Act, shows the lack of appreciation of the provisions of the law.

Accordingly, the FIR filed against the husband under Sections 366 IPC (Kidnapping a woman to compel her to marry a person against her will) was quashed.