High Court reunites MP couple

Joseph, a protestant, and Ayushi, a Hindu, eloped in late September leaving Jobat town in tribal-dominated Alirajpur district on the edge with Right-wing organisations taking to the streets and threatening an indefinite bandh if the couple was not traced by October 1.

The town observed a complete bandh on October 1 and the police somehow convinced the couple, who married at an Arya Samaj temple in Bhopal, to return to the police superintendent’s office in Alirajpur, where hundreds of Hindu Jagaran Manch, RSS and Bajrang Dal activists had gathered.

While her relatives and activists wanted her to depose against Joseph, 22, Ayushi stood her ground saying she was in love with him and does not want to return to her parents. Declaring the marriage invalid, the police escorted Jospeh to Indore where he is pursuing a degree in General Nursing Midwifery and sent Ayushi, a Final Year BSc student, to Nari Niketan Gruh in Ujjain. The small Christian community in Jobat had to endure protests and threats to burn down the CNI church. Despite threats, Joseph’s three sisters backed him to move the Indore bench of the MP High Court. The petition filed under Article 226 and 227 requested the court to issue an appropriate order to reunite Ayushi and her husband Joseph.

In a short order delivered on November 10, Justice S C Sharma held that the administration’s order sending Ayushi to Nari Niketan Gruh was illegal. Advocate Yashpal Rathore, who appeared for Joseph, told The Sunday Express that the court held that being a major Ayushi was free to go anywhere she liked and keeping her in a shelter home was uncalled for. The advocate said the couple was united on November 11 after the NGO received the court order.

The Indian Express, which highlighted the couple’s ordeal last month, had met Ayushi at the shelter house a week after she was sent there. The couple is keeping a low profile.

Rathore said the administration refused to part with a copy of the order that sent Ayushi to Ujjain and Joseph to Indore and an application under the Right to Information Act was turned down. It was only when the High Court issued notices to the SP, the Secretary to Tribal Welfare Department, the station in-charge of the Jobat Police Station and Nari Niketan Gruh that he could get a copy of the order.