Allahabad HC Slams Police for Probing Marriage of Consent, Quashes FIR
The Allahabad High Court has strongly criticised the police for investigating a marriage between two consenting adults, observing that the police have no business to be 'nosy parkers' and should focus on investigating crimes, not marriages.
In a July 27 order, a division bench of Justices JJ Munir and Tarun Saxena imposed a fine on the Bhadohi Superintendent of Police (SP) and the Suriyawan Station House Officer (SHO), and quashed the First Information Report (FIR) lodged against the husband by the woman's father on charges of abduction to force her into marriage.
The couple, aged 28 and 27, both postgraduates with certificate courses in teaching, had filed a petition challenging the FIR. They told the court that they married with Arya Samaj rituals in Prayagraj on February 18 after being in a relationship for one year. The woman's father filed the case on April 18 after learning about the marriage.
The court had earlier on April 29 noted that 'two major citizens of the country married according to Hindu rites' and that 'prima facie there was nothing in the FIR to investigate'. It stayed the investigation and arrest. However, the police persisted with the probe, leading to the contempt-like observations in the final order.
The bench said: 'We are utterly disillusioned by the stand taken by the Superintendent of Police, Bhadohi that the investigation has to be completed. This is a case where the matter ought to have been concluded.' The court noted that once a division bench of the High Court recorded the woman's statement, no other court or police authority had the right to record further statements.
The order further stated: 'To continue the investigation into an adult’s free choice of her partner and marriage between two major citizens of the country is not only an abuse of process of criminal law, but also gross violation of their fundamental right to liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.'
The court imposed a fine of Rs 1,000, jointly and severally, on the SP and the SHO, and Rs 5,000 on the woman's father, to be paid to the woman. The court warned that such interference with adult marriages would not be tolerated.
