NEW DELHI — The Delhi High Court has made an important statement: Article 21 of the Constitution protects an individual’s right to marry someone of a different faith. This decision was made at the hearing of a petition from a young couple of different faiths who had been together for seven years and were about to get married, but the woman’s family was strongly against it.
A bench of Justice Sanjeev Narula heard the case on August 8 after a 26-year-old Muslim male and a 25-year-old Hindu woman asked for help. The pair said that even though they asked the police for help, they were forcibly separated and the lady was supposedly held at a state-run shelter home. The court has since told the Delhi Police to write a report on the claims of illegal separation and told them to keep protecting the marriage.
The Right to Choose and Parents’ Pain
The court’s comment is about the difficult balance between what parents want and an adult’s freedom to be free. The court acknowledged that the father was upset that his daughter married without his permission, but they made it clear that these feelings cannot take precedence over a person’s constitutional rights.
The court’s statement made it clear that “Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees that every adult citizen has the right to shape the course of their own life without fear, coercion, or illegal restraint.” The decision to marry, especially across religious lines, may put social standards and family expectations to the test, but in the eyes of the law, it is still a matter of personal freedom and autonomy that cannot be stopped by anyone else.
The court went on to say that although if a parent has a right to worry about their child’s well-being, “upon reaching the age of majority, the right to make decisions about marriage becomes the individual’s personal prerogative.” But parental preference, no matter how well-meaning, can’t legally take away that freedom.
The pair is now moving to make their marriage official under the Special Marriage Act. They are currently living in a safe place as ordered by the court. On September 12, the court will hear the case again.