Indian SC observation in Hadiya case: Courts cannot annul marriage between two consenting adults

NEW DELHI Courts cannot annul marriages between two consenting adults or resort to a “roving enquiry” on whether the married relationship between a man and woman is based on consent, the Indian Supreme Court observed on Thursday.

The Bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra defined the limits of the court’s jurisdiction in Hadiya case.“Can a court say a marriage is not genuine or whether the relationship is not genuine? Can a court say she [Hadiya] did not marry the right person? She came to us and told us that she married of her own accord,” Justice D.Y. Chandrachud observed.

Ms. Hadiya, the 26-year-old Homeopathy student converted to Islam and subsequently married a Muslim man. The marriage was annulled by the Kerala High Court, which said it was “sham”.

Her father, Asokan K.M., alleged that she was indoctrinated by a “well-oiled network” who is a front to recruit Indian citizens and traffic them abroad to strife-prone countries like Syria to work as “sex slaves”.

Justice Chandrachud countered that if there was trafficking of citizens involved, the government had the power to stop it on the basis of credible information. If citizens are travelling abroad to be part of a manifest illegality, then too, the government has the authority to stop them.“But in personal law, we cannot annul marriages because she did not marry the right person,” Justice Chandrachud told to Mr. Divan.