Couple move Allahabad High Court seeking protection, get fined Rs 25,000 for manipulation to hide minor status

‘Approached court with unclean hands’

• The couple had sought directions to the police authorities to ensure protection of their life and liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution and not interfere in their marital life. They had also sought action on a representation submitted to the police authorities.
• The petition before the Allahabad High Court specifically stated that both petitioners were majors. The woman was stated to be about 18 years old, while the male claimed – through an Aadhaar card annexed with the plea – that he was born in 2002, making him 24 years old.
• However, the additional government advocate, based on the information received from the police, pointed out that the male’s date of birth was manipulated.
• The Allahabad High Court observed that the petitioner had manipulated his date of birth and is a minor as of the date. He was found to have been born in 2010.

• As per the verification by the authorities, it has clearly emerged that “petitioner No.2 has manipulated the date of birth, as mentioned in his Aadhar Card” and is a minor, the court noted.
• After the discrepancy was pointed out, counsel appearing for the petitioners sought permission to withdraw the plea.
• The court, however, refused to simply permit withdrawal and came down heavily on the conduct of the petitioners.
• Once a litigant approaches this court with “unclean” or rather “dirty hands” and even manipulated a document for the same, the writ petition deserves to be dismissed with exemplary cost, the Allahabad High Court remarked.
• Accordingly, the bench dismissed the plea and directed the petitioners to deposit Rs 25,000 before the high court legal services sub-committee, Lucknow, within four weeks.
• The court further ordered that in case of non-payment, the amount would be recovered as arrears of land revenue.

Can’t indirectly legitimise ‘marriage-like’ arrangement

In another case, the Allahabad High Court refused to grant protection to an interfaith couple in a live-in relationship, observing that courts cannot indirectly legitimise a “marriage-like” arrangement that is barred under statutory marriage laws because the male partner has not attained 21 years of age.

Justice Garima Prashad dismissed the plea filed by the interfaith couple, a 20-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man, who had sought directions restraining their family members from interfering in their relationship and protection of their life and liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.

“If a court cannot permit the parties to marry because the law withholds that permission until the male completes twenty-one years, the court cannot achieve substantially the same result by treating the functional equivalent of that marriage as entitled to judicial support simply because it is described as a live-in relationship,” the Allahabad High Court noted in its order dated May 4.