Khap panchayats have no right to invalidate ‘Marriage’: SC

The top court of the country, sealing a loophole seen in the right of marriage between consenting adults, has held that neither Khap panchayats, the community panchayats operate primarily in the rural regions of the country in which the formal administrative and legal infrastructure of the authorised system is less visible, nor parents have the right to invalidate the marriage relation between two consenting adults and such an act should be viewed or considered as illegal activity or illegal interference.

There was a visible vacuum around the right of marriage between consenting adults due to the lack of a concrete law dealing with the sensitive subjects of honour killing and other similar atrocities that the adults, who try to get into a marriage alliance without the support of either their family or community or both, often suffer.

The new observation and directives delivered by the Supreme Court of India has in a sense filled the vacuum with necessary legal support to make the, hitherto, highly vulnerable space less vulnerable for exploitation and misuse.

It is learned that the centre is of the opinion that the state government should open up special cell to hear and redress the grievances of those who are being persecuted for using his/her right to marriage without the consent of either his/her family or society or both, and should set up special protection homes where the couples, belong to aforementioned category, can live without the fear of persecution.

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