Single-judge Justice Rahul Chaturvedi expressed deep anguish at the fact that the menace was so deep-rooted even after 75 years of independence.
The Court was hearing a joint plea was filed by victim-woman and her accused-husband who sought quashing of the chargesheet filed against the husband under Sections 363 (kidnapping), 366 (compelling to marriage) of Indian Penal Code, and Section 7/8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act).
The judge observed that in the present case, the father of the victim-girl was still proceeding with case because of the inter-caste marriage despite the fact that his daughter had married the accused voluntarily and was also now a mother of a baby boy.
“This is the clear case of our society’s dark face, where the families still feel shy to get their son or daughter to marry inter caste. In the instant case, the victim girl belongs to Other Backward Class (OBC) community whereas the applicant boy belongs to SC community and out of sheer love and affection, they decided to marry at their teens. This wedlock blessed with a baby boy Shivansh having date of birth 16.09.2022. Despite of all these developments, the applicant is facing the futile exercise of holding trial. The court after hearing the parties, records its deepest anguish, whereby this social menace is so deep rooted that even after 75 years of independence, we are fighting the cases with his opponents on this score only…,” the Court observed.
Source: Barandbench
