The Madras High Court bench here on Wednesday permitted a caste Hindu girl to go with a scheduled caste boy she had married against her family’s wish.
The petitioner, C. Muthulakshmi, a superintendent in Theni district treasury, had filed a habeas corpus petition alleging that her son M. Ramprasad, a M.Sc.- B.Ed, graduate, had gone missing since March 2, 2013. According to the petitioner’s counsel A. Rajini, Ramprasad (24), who belonged to a SC community, had married O.Vijayalakshmi (20), a caste Hindu girl on February 20, 2013.
The couple surrendered before the Allinagaram police inspector on March 1 after the girl’s family tried to separate and kill them, Mrs. Muthulakshmi claimed in her petition.
However the police turned down the couple’s request for protection, she added.
The couple went missing from March 2, the petitioner said and alleged that she was threatened, assaulted and abused verbally with reference to her caste by the girl’s family who sought details pertaining to the whereabouts of the couple.
The petitioner claimed that she had given complaints to the inspector of Allinagaram police station and the Superintendent of Police, but they were not acted upon. In her petition, Mrs. Muthulakshmi pleaded that the police should be directed to book the girl’s family under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and to provide protection to the couple. “Vijayalakshmi’s family had planned to kill the couple because of their inter-caste marriage.
The petitioner apprehends that her son and daughter-in-law might be killed under the pretext of honour killing,” the petitioner’s counsel contended.
Based on the instruction of the court, the police produced the couple before a division bench comprising Justices S. Rajeswaran and T. Mathivanan. Mrs. Vijayalakshmi expressed her intention to go with Ramprasad, following which the judges permitted her to go with him.
The judges gave the couple the liberty to approach the police in case of trouble and directed the police to take appropriate action to help the couple if they approached them.
