Mumbai: Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh has filed a petition in the Bombay High Court challenging the notification issued by the Maharashtra Government establishing the Family Coordination Committee (FCC) to monitor inter-faith and inter-caste marriages in Maharashtra.
The petition states that the resolution is discriminatory against a particular religion and is thus violative of provisions of the Constitution of India including Articles 14 (right to equality), Article 15 (forbidding discrimination), 21 (right to life which includes the right to privacy), and 25 (right to freedom of religion).
GR was issued last year after Shraddha Walkar murder
The GR was issued on December 13, 2022, following the tragic killing of Shraddha Walkar, a Palghar girl, allegedly by her inter-faith boyfriend in Delhi, as stated in the plea filed by lawyer Jeet Gandhi.
"That the assumption that adult women who choose and consent to marry someone from another faith need to be 'saved' is misplaced and goes against the spirit of the Constitution," Shaikh said in his plea.
He claimed that it is the government's attempt to discourage and/ or prohibit interfaith marriages and is a precursor to the laws related to purported 'love jihad' marriages that have been stayed in numerous states in the country.
The government's FCC is ostensibly intended to provide a platform to 'counsel, communicate and resolve' differences between such couples and their estranged families.
Order a breach of couple's privacy: Shaikh
Shaikh argued that the FCC's ability to intervene upon the request of any individual is a violation of the privacy of married couples, particularly when they are consenting adults.
He highlighted that the discussion around marriage in India often ignores the agency of adult individuals, with families, vigilante groups, and societal pressures assuming the role of controlling the lives and futures of young people who have chosen their own partners.
The plea argued that the GR seeks to create a regressive and false narrative that "it is only in inter-faith or inter-caste marriages that a girl is at risk from her partner".
GR discriminatory towards specific religion: Shaikh
In addition, Shaikh asserted that the GR is discriminatory towards a specific religion and promotes division among people instead of fostering harmony, co-existence, assimilation, and peace. The petition highlights that the FCC has the authority to gather information on both registered and unregistered marriages, which could potentially violate the rights of couples who have eloped to marry.
Furthermore, Shaikh argued that the GR is beyond the scope of the Constitution, as it was issued hastily and unilaterally under suspicious circumstances, without following proper procedures. He pointed out that distressed women already have recourse to other laws, such as the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act.
Shaikh said that the GR doesn't cover those who plan to wed under personal laws and/or in their own religion, and sought that it should be scrapped, and the petition is likely to come up for hearing in due course.
It may be recalled that earlier, the state government's move had been flayed on various counts, including that it could result in targeting of people belonging to a particular minority.
