00:00We sometimes hear of honour killings of such persons who undergo inter-caste or inter-religious marriage of their own free will.
00:11There is nothing honourable in such killings.
00:15What happens to the freedom of choice?
00:18The carefully crafted dignity judicious prudence assiduously developed over the years by the Supreme Court is slowly being given an undignified cremation of the Hathras kind?
00:29A regression is being witnessed in the rights of women and issues concerning their dignity.
00:37The Hathras rape and murder is very much in our thoughts.
00:42But I would like to travel a different path on dignity and go back to a decision given in 2006 in the case of Lata Singh in which the Supreme Court painfully observed in rather strong words.
00:57We sometimes hear of honour killings of such persons who undergo inter-caste or inter-religious marriage of their own free will.
01:09There is nothing honourable in such killings.
01:12And in fact, they are nothing but barbaric and shameful acts of murder committed by brutal, feudal minded persons who deserve harsh punishment.
01:24Only in this way can we stamp out such acts of barbarism.
01:30It has to be sublimely borne in mind that when two adults consensually choose each other as life partners, it is a manifestation of their choice which is recognized under Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution.
01:48Such a right has a sanction of the constitutional law and once that is recognized, the said right needs to be protected and it cannot succumb to the conception of class honour or group thinking which is conceived of on some notion that remotely does not have any legitimacy.
02:09The Supreme Court decided a case that came to be commonly known as the Hadiyah case.
02:14In this case, a 24-year-old lady converted to Islam and married a person of her choice.
02:22The Kerala High Court annulled the marriage on the ground of incongruities in her statements before the court which led to the belief that the marriage was a sham.
02:34The Supreme Court also examined the lady in person and upheld the marriage when she admitted to it and also considering the fact that she was a major aged around 24 years.
02:46Notwithstanding this, the court permitted the National Investigating Agency or the NIA to continue investigations in respect of any matter of criminality.
02:59It appears that the NIA investigated several other interfaith marriages and concluded that none of them involved any fraud or coercion nor was there any evidence of a larger criminal design.
03:14Unfortunately, liberty granted by the court to the NIA coupled with the suggestion given in a case decided by the Uttarakhand High Court prompted the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly to enact the Freedom of Religion Act of 2018
03:34whereby a marriage performed with the sole purpose of religious conversion could be declared as null and void.
03:42Interestingly, this law does not prohibit a live-in relationship or any other consensual arrangement.
03:51Giving a backseat to freedom of choice, dignity and human rights, a stringent ordinance relating to marriage and forcible religious conversion has recently been passed in Uttar Pradesh.
04:07Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana and Assam are contemplating a similar law.
04:16The purpose of these laws is to prohibit what is commonly called Love Jihad, which has no clear definition but is loosely described by one Chief Minister as Jihadis playing with the honour and dignity of sisters and daughters by hiding their real names and identities.
04:38One Chief Minister went so far as to say that if such Jihadis do not mend their ways, it will be the beginning of their journey to the grave.
04:48The possible death sentence that has already been pronounced is certainly not sanctioned by the Constitution or by law and can bring about a resurgence of mob lynching.
05:02The consequences of these statements are therefore very frightening.
05:07Are we as a society prepared for this? And what happens to the law declared by the Supreme Court and the progressive interpretation of our Constitution?
05:18What happens to the freedom of choice? Instead, how about a war on child marriage, which by definition is forced marriage?
05:30The carefully crafted dignity jurisprudence, assiduously developed over the years by the Supreme Court, is slowly being given an undignified cremation of the Hathras kind and might reach a point of no return if so-called anti-Love Jihad laws are passed or extended to other communities.
