The Court was considering a Habeus Corpus petition moved by a 19-year-old woman’s father after she ran away from her college hostel to marry her lover.
While permitting the woman to continue living with the man with whom she eloped, the Court made some interesting observations regarding the relationship one shares with their parents and their spouse.
“The peculiar facts and circumstances of the present case clearly depicts that love is blind and more powerful weapon than the love and affection of the parents, family members and the society at large. It is high time for the children to know that the life consists of reaction, resound and reflection. What they are doing to their parents today, would get back exactly tomorrow,” the Court said in its order.
The Court focused on the idea of mutual love and respect, and opined that while the woman is indeed a legal adult who can do as she pleases, she could have informed and convinced her parents regarding marrying her lover.
A bench of Justices B Veerappa and KS Hemalekha also invoked Manusmrithi to elaborate on the concept of dharma and to highlight the importance of being compassionate towards ones parents and care for them in their old age.
“Even according to Manusmruthi, no person can repay his parents even in 100 years for all the troubles that they go through to give birth to him/her and raise him/her to adulthood. Therefore, always try to do whatever pleases your parents and your teacher, because only then does any religious worship done by you will bear some fruit“, the Court said.
Source: Barandbench
