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Sep 17, 2021

'Not Even Parents Can Object': Allahabad HC Reiterates Consenting Adults' Right to Be Together

An interfaith couple had filed a plea in the high court after their parents opposed their marriage.
Allahabad high court. Photo: vroomtrapit/Wikimedia Commons CC0 1.0

New Delhi: The Allahabad high court on Thursday reiterated that two adults have the rights to marry whoever they want, irrespective of their religion.

The bench of Justices Deepak Verma and Manoj Kumar Gupta were hearing a plea filed by a 19-year-old Muslim woman and her 24-year-old Hindu partner, who were living together in Uttar Pradesh off their own volition. The woman had also filed a petition to convert from Islam to Hinduism.

The man’s father, the couple said, did not agree with their relationship and was creating problems for them. The woman’s parents too did not support the relationship.

The court on Thursday granted protection to the couple and said that nobody – not even their parents – could intervene if the two decided as adults to be together. “It cannot be disputed that two adults have right of choice of their matrimonial partner irrespective of religious professed by them… As the present petition is a joint petition by the two individuals who claims to be in love with each other and are major, therefore, in our considered opinion, nobody, not even their parents, could object to their relationship,” Bar and Bench quoted the judges as saying.

After the woman filed application to convert, the district magistrate asked for a report on the matter from the local police. In that report, both sets of parents had said that they do not approve of the couple living together.

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