Dindauri (Madhya Pradesh): A single Jabalpur bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court comprising of Justice Nandita Dubey while hearing a petition regarding an inter-faith marriage asked the couple to get their marriage registered under Special Marriage Act.
The run-away couple got married in a local temple on April 7 but as they were not officially married they were and was facing hardship both from the family and the administration. Justice asked the couple to get married officially.
The incident happened few days back when Sakshi Sahu and Asif Khan living in the same locality and were in love with each other since their childhood decided to get married and approached their respective families for consent. When both the families rejected the couple decided to flee.
The couple fled to Dantewada and got married in a local temple on April 7 and was living there since then. The incident turned murky when the girl’s family lodged a complaint against the boy’s family. The police – on the basis of the complaint- harassed the boy’s family.
The police based on FIR were harassing family members of Asif Khan. Besides, the administration also razed the house and shops belonging to Asif's family," said the counsel of the petitioner, adding, "Hence, the petition was filed in the High Court by the couple to seek protection. The court in its ruling had declared lodging of the FIR in the matter illegal because the couple had not committed a crime."
As the couple married in a temple so that is not legally tenable so the court directed the couple to legalise the marriage to avoid any kind of further harassment. Besides, the court had also sent notices to respondents such as SDM, SP, and SDM in the demolition matter," said the counsel of the petitioner.