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Context:
- The Supreme Court has set aside a Kerala High Court order who cancelled the marriage of Hadiya to Shafin Jahan, whom she had married after converting to Islam.
Explanation:
- The Supreme Court recognised and upheld Ms. Hadiya’s freedom “to pursue her future endeavours according to law”.
- This means Ms. Hadiya is free to leave her college hostel at Salem and join Mr. Jahan.
- A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud observed that the High Court “should not have annulled the marriage”.
- Marriage and plurality are the fundamental core of our culture.
- But, the moment public law (law of relations between individuals and the State) is allowed to encroach into marriage, it allows the state interfere in individual choices of a citizen.
- It is not just the state, but parents too cannot wield their influence against adults who marry a person of their own choice.
- It is not for the courts or the state or the parents to question a woman’s choice of her husband.
