HC to Honour Obsessed Families across UP: An Adult's Marriage is none of your business, state will protect Couples even from their Own Kin

The Allahabad High Court has delivered a sharp constitutional reminder that adult marriages are beyond the reach of family pride or social convention, granting full interim protection to a couple who legally wed of their own free will but feared lethal retribution from the bride's relatives. The order, passed by a bench of Justice JJ Munir and Justice Tarun Saxena, directly restrains the woman's family from any contact, interference, or harm, and puts the Aligarh police on notice to keep the couple safe.

The petitioners, a married couple who solemnised their union at an Arya Samaj Temple and held a valid registration certificate under the Uttar Pradesh Marriage Registration Rules, 2017, approached the High Court after the woman's family, hostile to the match, lodged what the couple described as a fabricated FIR against them under Section 87 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which deals with kidnapping or inducing a woman into marriage. Beyond the criminal case, the couple placed before the court a joint affidavit spelling out a credible and specific fear: that members of the woman's family were actively planning an honour killing. With a bogus criminal case on one side and a threat to their lives on the other, the couple sought the court's protection on both fronts simultaneously.

Finding a prima facie case established, the bench anchored its reasoning in a principle as fundamental as it is frequently violated, that no individual or family can convert another adult's personal choice of a life partner into a matter of collective honour demanding violent resolution. The court observed unequivocally that "no person can turn the personal choice of a major into an issue of honour" and went further, underscoring that shielding citizens from such threats, even when the threat originates within their own families, is an unambiguous constitutional obligation of the State.

Acting on that principle, the court barred arrest of the petitioners in the criminal case, explicitly restrained the woman's family members and their associates from causing harm, entering the couple's matrimonial home, or making any contact through any means including electronic communication, and directed the Senior Superintendent of Police, Aligarh, to ensure the couple's physical safety. The matter is next listed for hearing on April 8.