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The Supreme Court stated the NCPCR lacked locus standi to challenge the High Court's order protecting the couple. (Source: File)
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) appeal challenging a Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment that held that a 16-year-old Muslim girl can enter into a valid marriage, saying it did not have any locus standi in the matter.
“We fail to see how NCPCR can be aggrieved by such an order. If the High Court, in exercise of its power under Article 226, seeks to extend protection to two individuals, the NCPCR has no locus standi to challenge such an order. Dismissed,” a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan said.
Justice Nagarathna questioned the child rights body’s locus standi to question the high court verdict. “NCPCR has no locus to challenge such an order…if two minor children are protected by the High Court, how can NCPCR challenge such an order….It is strange that the NCPCR, which is for protecting the children, has challenged such an order,” the judge observed.
The counsel for the Commission said its challenge was on the question of law, whether a minor girl can enter into a legally valid marriage only because the personal law allows it.
The bench, however, said, “No question of law arises”, adding, “You challenge in an appropriate case please.”
Justice Nagarathna also referred to minor teenagers falling in love and said such instances will have to be viewed distinctly. “There is Pocso [Protection of Children from Sexual Offences] Act, which takes care of the penal cases, but there are romantic cases also where teenagers on the verge of majority run away, where there are genuine romantic cases, they want to get married…don’t read such cases the same as criminal cases. We have to differentiate between criminal cases and this,” she said.
“Look at the trauma the girl undergoes if she loves a boy and he is sent to jail, because her parents would file a Pocso case to cover the elopement,” the judge added.
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A single-judge bench of the high court had on June 13 passed the order on a plea by a Pathankot-based Muslim couple who had approached the court for protection. The high court had said the issue for consideration in the case was not with regard to the validity of the marriage but to address the apprehension raised by the petitioners of danger to their life and liberty.
It had directed the senior superintendent of police, Pathankot, to decide the representation of the petitioners and take necessary action as per law.
“The court cannot shut its eyes to the fact that the apprehension of the petitioners needs to be addressed. Merely because the petitioners have got married against the wishes of their family members, they cannot possibly be deprived of the fundamental rights as envisaged in the Constitution of India,” the high court had said.
English (US) ·