KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has directed police to ensure that adult couples, who had contracted inter-caste or inter-faith marriages, must not be subjected to any harassment, criminal intimidation or act of violence.

The SHC said that if parents were not accepting such marriages, they could only cut off social relations with their sons/daughters, but they were not permitted to extend threats, commit or instigate acts of violence against such couples.

A two-judge bench comprising Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Adnan-ul-Karim Memon also directed the police to institute criminal proceedings against those people, who either themselves or at their instigation, commit such acts against grown-up legally married couples.

The court issued such directives while disposing of two petitions filed by as many couples, who contracted free-will marriages against the wishes of their families.

Bench orders police to ensure free-will couples must not be subjected to harassment, criminal intimidation

The relatives of female petitioners had lodged cases against their husbands as well as other family members on various chargers, including abduction.

It noted that there can be no denial to the fact that an event of marriage was always an occasion of honour for a family.

“Therefore, all authorities otherwise are entitled to question the validity of a marriage on the pretext of underage, but should strictly act keeping this aspect in mind and must not act in a manner prejudicial to the honour of such family or girl.

“The authority should try to first satisfy itself about the genuineness of the information and then decide whether to proceed or otherwise because if at the end of the day, the information is found to be false there would be nothing to compensate the loss sustained by the family complained against,” it added.

The bench in its order said: “Primarily, this is a free and democratic country, and once a person becomes a major he or she can marry whosoever he/she likes; if the parents of the boy or girl do not approve of such inter-caste or interreligious marriage the maximum they can do is they can cut off social relations with the son or the daughter, but they cannot give threats or commit or instigate acts of violence and cannot harass the person who undergoes such inter-caste or inter-religious marriage.”

While issuing directives to police and administration concerned about protection of such couples and legal action against the persons committing or instigating violence or harassment, the bench said that such observation was without prejudice to the legal rights of the parties, arising out of the underage issue if any, pending before the competent court of law.

It also said that these petitions had served the purpose and directed the police to provide legal protection to the couples/petitioners as and when they approach for same and in the meanwhile no further action was required against them in terms of the cases lodged against them since the same must be treated as cancelled.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2024