At a time when ‘honour’ offences are being reported from all corners of the country, a timely intervention by the Madras high court has saved the marriage of a non-dalit girl with a dalit boy. The couple were reunited after a brief separation when the girl, who is eight months pregnant, told the court that she wanted to go with her husband.
Kalaimani, a dalit, and Prasanna, who belongs to the Reddiyar community, were working as teachers in a private school in Villupuram district when they fell in love. They got married on August 11, 2009 at a Murugan temple in Cuddalore with the blessings of their common friends and well-wishers.
They also registered the marriage at the Cuddalore office of the registrar of Hindu marriages.
According to Kalaimani, Prasanna went missing on July 2. As he suspected that she was abducted, he filed an FIR with the Chinna Salem police station near Kallakurichi. No effective action was taken to trace and rescue Prasanna, he said.
He then filed a habeas corpus petition in the high court, seeking direction to the police to produce Prasanna in the court. A division bench comprising Justice C Nagappan and Justice PR Shivakumar, before which the petition came up for hearing, directed the Villupuram district police to trace the girl and produce her in court.
On Monday, standing before the two judges, Prasanna politely said that she wanted to go with her husband. She also told the judges that she was not under any illegal detention and that she went off to her parental home on her own volition.
Kalaimani had alleged that Prasanna’s parents had kept her confined and attempted to abort the child. He also claimed that his wife was assaulted by her relatives and that her whereabouts were not known to him. Praying for a direction to the police to produce Prasanna in court, he had said her life was in peril.
Thanks. Times of India dated 20.07.2010
No comments:
Post a Comment