'Safe houses be made available in Pb, Hry for couples marrying against family's wishes'

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has suggested that safe houses should be made available in the two states as well as in Chandigarh, their common capital, to protect life and liberty of couples who married against the wishes of their families.

"Number of such petitions are being filed by the couples who performed marriage against the wishes of their parents and relatives. This court is also being approached by the couples stating to be in a live-in relationship," Justice Avneesh Jhingan pointed out in an interim order on Wednesday.

The court was hearing a writ petition that had sought issuance of directions to the Punjab government to protect life and liberty of the petitioners, who married on March 4 against the wishes of their parents.

Non-acceptability of inter-caste marriage is a social problem which needs to be dealt at multifarious levels, the judge said, adding that inter-caste is not the only reason for non-acceptability of marriage, there are numerous other socio-economic reasons acting as hurdles for the young couples for selecting life partner of their choice. "Over the period it is experienced that number of such petitions are filed as a matter of routine. It is evident from most of these petitions that the day the marriage is performed, a representation is made and in some cases even the writ petition is drafted/filed on the same very day. In most of the cases, there is even no proof of submission of the representation," he said.

"The petitions of such nature are either disposed of, without commenting on the validity of the marriage and directing the official respondents to consider the representation or notice of motion is issued to the official respondents. In latter case by the next date, the police officials record the statements of the petitioners. By and large, the statement is that there is no threat perception existing," Jhingan said.