CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court has made it clear that it can’t grant any protection to a runaway couple if any of the two partners is not divorced from the previous spouse.
Justice Harnaresh Singh Gill passed these orders while dismissing the petition of a couple from the Kaithal district of Haryana. The couple had sought directions to the Kaithal police to protect their life and liberty from the woman’s husband and three other relatives.
In response to the petition, the Kalayat deputy superintendent of police (DSP) filed a a status report that the woman was premarried and had a child who lived with her husband, with whom whe had a marital discord. A divorce case is pending. The report says that the man is a drunkard who beats up his wife and has threatened to kill her. It also says that the two petitioners for security have been living in a long live-in relationship. On December 1, 2020, they had approached the Kaithal police for security and then moved the high court after no action.
The state, however, opposed their petition. After hearing both parties, the high court examined that a division bench of the Allahabad high court, in ‘Akhlesh and another versus the state of Uttar Pradesh and others’ had decided on February 25 and a single bench of the same court in ‘Kusum and another versus the state of UP and others’ had decided on November 9, 2016, that where any of the petitioners has not secured divorce, no protection can be granted.
“The petitioner number 1 (the woman) has filed for divorce under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, yet the divorce hasn’t been granted, so far. So, the present petition is dismissed, as no ground is made out to allow the prayer,” the Punjab and Haryan high court observed.