HC helps Hindu-Muslim couple tie knot in Kerala

Having received threats in their communally-sensitive home district Kasargod, a Muslim man and a Hindu woman got married in Kochi after the Kerala High Court intervened in the matter. The couple had furnished the mandatory notices at Badiyadukka sub-registrar office in Kasargod on January 24 this year, as per the Special Marriages Act, but the high court allowed their marriage to be registered in Kochi on February 25 due the threats.

The youth had been in love with the Hindu woman for several years. Her father, however, had moved a habeas corpus in the high court, claiming his daughter had been abducted, following which, police tracked down the couple and produced them before the court on January 27. The woman told the court that she was in love with the man and that she had left her house on her own. The court then allowed her to move to a hostel temporarily.

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The couple, meanwhile, sought the court’s intervention stating that they could not register their marriage at Badiyadukka due to the threats from religious fundamentalists. Considering the tense situation at their village, the high court allowed the couple to register their marriage in Kochi. .

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Police, on the other hand, informed the court that two cases have been registered in Kasargod and Ernakuam central police stations, in connection with threats that the couple have received. The court directed the police to conduct a probe into all the threats.

Kasargod, neighbouring Karnataka’s Mangalore district, has witnessed several incidents of lovers from different religious communities being targeted by extremists.