SHC issues notices to AG, others in two free-will marriage cases

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has issued notices to the advocate general, the prosecutor general and others on a petition of a couple seeking protection in a free-will marriage case.

The SHC’s division bench issued the notices on Friday after hearing the petition of a couple who had contracted free-will marriage and sought protection against police harassment.

The bench headed by Justice Syed Mohammad Farooq Shah observed that when women married without the consent of her elders, their parents often seemed to make efforts to undo the nuptials.

The court said the state was duty-bound to protect the marriage, adding that if the couple were deprived of their right to live together and forced to live separately against their wishes, then it would be considered the worst kind of violation of their fundamental rights.

Petitioner Maryum Mahar said she had married Mohammad Ghous on June 13 against the wishes of her parents and now her husband and in-laws were being harassed by the police on the behest of her family.

She said the police had lodged a false case of her kidnapping against her husband and in-laws at a Sukkur police station, despite the fact that she had married Ghous of her own freewill and without giving into any kind of pressure. She sought protection and the quashing of the FIR.

The court said the duty of the police was to act in aid of the constitution and the law, as neither the police nor any other state functionary had any right to harass a married couple or their family members to cause a separation.

The bench directed the police and other official respondents to act strictly in accordance with the law and provide necessary protection to the couple as well as ensure that they were not harassed in future.

The judge issued notices to the Sindh advocate general, the prosecutor general and others, calling for their comments in the next hearing on August 10.

The court issued the same order on another similar petition by Safia, who said she had married Ghulam Mustafa on July 8 against the wishes of her family, resulting in her family registering a false kidnapping case against her husband and in-laws in Badin.