Love is 'blind and stronger' than love of parents and society: Karnataka HC

The Karnataka High Court, while allowing a girl who eloped and married her lover to stay with him, gave a cautionary warning that what she did to her parents could come back to her from her children.

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Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka, while allowing a girl who eloped and married her lover to stay with him, gave a cautionary warning that what she did to her parents could come back to her from her children. TL Nagaraju had filed a habeas corpus petition in the HC stating that his daughter, Nisarga, an engineering student was missing from her college hostel and one Nikhil aka Abhi, who was a driver, had taken her away forcibly.

Nisarga and Nikhil were presented before the division bench of Justice B Veerappa and Justice K S Hemalekha. Nisarga volunteered before the court that she was a major by age, having been born on April 28, 2003.

She was in love with Nikhil and went with him of her own accord. The two had married in a temple on May 13 and have been living together since.

She wanted to live with her husband and did not want to go back to her parents. She claimed that she was doing it out of her own will in a "fit state of mind".

While recording the statement of Nisarga and Nikhil, the court had some advice for both the parents and their daughter.

"Our history reveals that there are parents who sacrificed their lives to the children and the children who sacrificed their lives to the parents. If there is love and affection between the two, there cannot be any rift in the family and there would be no question of either children going against the parents or parents going against the children to the Court to protect their rights," the HC told the parents.

"The peculiar facts and circumstances of the present case clearly depict that love is a blind and more powerful weapon than the love and affection of the parents, family members, and the society at large," the court said in its recent judgment.

The court also had a warning for Nisarga: "It is high time for the children to know that life consists of reaction, resound and reflection. What they are doing to their parents today, they will get back exactly tomorrow."

Quoting the 'Manusmruti', it said, "Even according to Manusmruthi, no person can repay his parents even in 100 years for all the troubles that they go through to give birth to him/ her and raise him/ her to adulthood. Therefore, always try to do whatever pleases your parents and your teacher, because only then does any religious worship done by you will bear some fruit."

However, the court dismissed the petition of Nisarga's father stating that law may regulate the conditions of a valid marriage, but "society has no role to play in determining their choice of partners including the parents. It is well settled that the autonomy of the individual is the ability to make decisions on vital matters of concern to life."