The division bench of Kerala High Court comprising of Justices V Chitambaresh and Sathish Ninan held that each and every inter religious marriage cannot be viewed as love jihad. The court was appalled to notice the fact that every marriage of such nature is sensationalized as either “love-jihad” or “ghar wapasi” despite the plethora of love between the spouses.
The present case is a scenario of the marriage of a Hindu woman and a Muslim man and hence is begin projected as “love jihad” by the parents of the woman and “ghar wapasi” by the man. Earlier, the woman from Kanpur left her home with the Muslim youth who were later on traced in Sonepat, Haryana a month later. Prior to this petition, the lower court allowed the woman to go with her parents asking her to give up the relationship with the Muslim man. And after which she was putin a Yoga Centre which was being run to coerce the inmates to return to Hindu religion. The woman interacted with a single judge of Kerela HC on August 18 and expressed her desire to go back home to her parents. On the date of petition hearing, she retracted from her stand stating that the decision she took earlier was under pressure.
During the litigation period, both got married legally and the court appreciated the extra ordinary courage shown by the girl by excoriating the attempt made by her parents to forefend the course of justice by misleading litigations. The court referring to Article 25(1) of the Indian Constitution stated that every citizen in this country has the fundamental right to freely profess, practice and propgate any religion. The court further observed that if there is any forcible conversion or re conversion which offends the fundamental right, then it had to be busted by the police authorities irrespective of the religion. It also quoted an American poet Maya Angelou who once said, "Love recognises no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope."
The court referring to Supreme Court order in the case of Lata Singh versus State of UP emphasized the need for encouraging the inter caste and inter religious marriages. The court upholding the marriage asked not to portray every inter religious marriage on a religious canvass creating a fuss in the communal harmony.
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