While the Gujarat high court reunited an inter-caste couple who had been forced into divorce by the woman’s family within two weeks of marriage, the Punjab and Haryana high court failed to provide security to a couple who are believed to have been victims of their family’s violence.
The reunited couple are a 32-year-old doctor from a government health centre in Deodar taluka and a staff nurse from another government health centre who met and married in 2017. While the groom belonged to the oppressed Thakor caste, the bride belonged to the privileged Chaudhary caste. The woman’s family was reportedly opposed to the marriage, so she kept the marriage a secret for four years and separated from him.
According to the doctor’s advocate Jigar Gadhavi, who then assisted the doctor in filing a habeas corpus petition in the high court on June 10, the woman wanted to leave her parent’s house and had asked the man to release her from confinement.
The bench of Justice R.M. Chhaya and Justice Nirzar Desai requested that the woman attend the hearing, and the woman appeared in front of the court via video conference. She stated in court that she was 26 years old and wished to remarry her husband.
“Live your own life as you wish,” the court said, allowing her to return to her husband and ordering Banaskantha police to provide security for the couple until they arrived at the man’s village.
Lawcutor 