Husband's age can't deny couple police protection, says Uttarakhand HC

NEW DELHI: The Uttarakhand high court has ordered police to protect a young couple who say the woman's family is threatening them over their marriage. The court said the husband's age at the time of marriage cannot, by itself, be a reason to deny them protection.What was the issueThe couple approached the high court asking for police protection. They said the woman's family was against their marriage and had threatened to kill them. Their lawyer told the court that both were adults and had married on March 24, 2026.According to her school certificate, the woman "was 19 years and 6 months old at the time of marriage." Her husband, going by his own certificate, "was also 20 years old at the time of marriage."The couple said in their petition that the woman's family members "are giving out threats to kill both the petitioners," and added that "they seriously apprehend threat to their life and limb from their family members, and hence they are before this court praying for protection."Lawyers for the woman's family opposed the plea. They argued that the husband "has not attained the age of 21 years and as such the marriage alleged to have been solemnized between the petitioners is not a valid marriage."

The couple's lawyer disagreed, saying that even if the husband hadn't reached the legal marriage age for men, "at the most, the marriage could be voidable" — not automatically invalid.What did the court sayJustice Alok Mahra while hearing the plea noted that an earlier bench had already asked the couple to meet a court counsellor. The counsellor's report said the woman "is not ready to go with her parents and she is happy with the company of the petitioner no.

2.""In that view of the matter, and in view of the ruling of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Lata Singh Vs State of U.P. and another, (2006) 5 SCC 475, the petitioners have made out a case for grant of protection," the court said.The court ordered the Station House Officer of Buggawala Police Station in Haridwar to "assess the threat, if any, to the life and limb of the petitioners, and provide necessary protection, if it is found that there is a threat to the life and limb of the petitioners."It further directed the officer to "summon the private respondents, and such other persons, who are inimically placed towards the marriage of the petitioners, and counsel them, in accordance with law."With this, the court disposed of the petition.