Supreme Court won't annul forced' marriage

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to annul a 26-year-old girl’s marriage only on the ground that it was performed without her consent, but asked the Delhi police to grant her protection from her family as she feared ‘honour killing’.

The court was informed that the girl’s marriage was performed in Gulbarga in Karnataka on March 14 this year without her consent in a politician’s family. As she refused to live with her husband, she faced threat to her life from her family and she had come down to Delhi and was staying in the custody of Delhi Commission for Women.  A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud told senior counsel Indira Jaising, who argued for the girl, that under the Hindu law a marriage cannot be annulled for lack of consent. The petitioner will have to seek remedy in a civil court for divorce and lack of consent can be a ground for seeking divorce, which is based on facts, the CJI observed.