Court frees Hindu woman detained at Nari Niketan for wanting to marry Muslim man

Had it not been for the intervention of the Allahabad High Court, a woman school teacher in Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha district would have continued cooling off her heels at the Nari Niketan she was sent to. [caption id=“attachment_2267572” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational Image.[/caption] All hell broke loose when Kanchan Verma, a school teacher, who is a Hindu decided to marry a Muslim man of her choice, a report in The Indian Express said. Drama began when the police detained Verma and her friend Nasir Aliunder Section 151 (breach of peace) of the Criminal Procedure Court (CrPc) outside the school she works at, on 27 April. The couple was then produced before the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Dhanaura area who sent Ali to judicial custody and Verma to a Nari Niketan. Though Ali was later released on bail, Verma was not that lucky. The high court’s intervention came when it admitted Verma’s habeas corpus petition pleading for release. During her stay at the Nari Niketan, Verma informed the court that she was forced to stay in inhospitable conditions with juveniles and that she was unable to attend school. On Tuesday, the Allahabad High Court ordered her immediate release while being critical of the SDM’s order. The court observed that there was no need to detain the petitioner at a Nari Niketan considering she is an adult who wants to live with a person of her choice. The court added that the action taken was in violation of Article 21 of the Constitution. While passing the order, a division bench of justices Tarun Agarwala and Amar Singh Chauhan said, “The right to life and personal liberty is the most precious right of a human being, which is governed by the rule of law. The Constitution is the rule of law. No one can rise above the rule of law in the Constitution. The executive cannot deprive a person of his life or personal liberty without authority of law,” reports The Indian Express. Verma’s family was opposed to the match as the would-be couple belonged to different religions. However, the high court order made it clear that Verma is free to decide her next move.