No one can contest validity of a 24-year-old’s marriage: SC 

“She is a 24 years old girl. If an adult says she is married out of her own free consent, how can one contest that marriage?” said the judges of the Supreme Court, finally, many months after the Hadiya case had reached the top court.

While hearing a special leave petition filed by Shafin Jahan, Hadiya’s husband, against the annulment of his marriage to Hadiya by the Kerala High Court, the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice AM Khanwilkar stated, on Tuesday, that the National Investigation Agency can continue with its investigation, but they cannot question the legitimacy of Hadiya’s marriage to Shafin. On hearing the news, Shafin Jahan said he was extremely happy because truth always prevails.

“Marriage should be free of any criminal conspiracy, criminal affability or criminal action. Otherwise it shall be a bad precedent in law. ‘X’ married ‘Y’- that is it. We cannot get into if the choice is independent. The heart of the matter is that the marriage cannot be nullified. So, no investigation can be carried out into the marital status,” pointed out Justice Mishra.

The NIA counsel objected stating that the court had asked it to check if women were being recruited as terrorists and if they were especially vulnerable. The court countered it stating that they were not concerned about the NIA probe.

Kapil Sibal, appearing for the petitioner, said he was concerned about the NIA investigation, because earlier the apex court had directed the investigation to be conducted under its supervision, but justice Raveendran had declined to do so and now the agency was conducting it without any supervision.

Madhavi Diwan, appearing for the respondents, appealed to the judges to not look at Hadiya’s case in isolation. She said that when the case was filed at the Kerala High Court, it was to ensure her return to her parents; at that time, she wasn’t even married. “The marriage was to legitimise het illegal confinement,” alleged Diwan.

Negating Diwan’s statement, the chief justice stated that Hadiya had appeared before the supreme court and high court, so the question of illegal confinement didn’t arise. The apex court, had on November 27, ordered Hadiya’s college dean in Salem to be her guardian and ordered State of Tamil Nadu to provide security to Hadiya for next 11 months until she completed her medical internship at Sivaraj Homeopathic Medical College in Tamil Nadu.