The 24-year-old in the white sherwani was the centre of attraction at the Supreme Court, where black robes are the norm. He had tried his best to look dapper, for he expected the court to allow him to legally wed the woman he had loved for several years now.

His wait did not go in vain. When the young man left the court on January 20, he had a wife — and the seal of approval on their wedding from India’s highest judiciary.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and A M Sapre validated their wedding in a temple four years ago, and allowed the young man to reunite with the girl who had been lodged in a shelter home in Lucknow for the last three years — waiting to become a major so she could legally wed.

The families of the two young people lived across the road from each other in Bahraich district of UP when they fell in love. But they weren’t old enough to marry — and they belonged to the two far ends of the caste spectrum.

“It was love at first sight. The more we saw of each other, the deeper in love we fell. But her family was opposed to our union. I am Dalit and she is Brahmin, and her family said there could never be a match between us for this reason. So we decide to run away and build a new life together somewhere else. We were married in a temple in 2011,” the soon-to-be groom told the court during a hearing.

The problems followed soon after the wedding. “Her family got an FIR registered against me at Rupaidiha police station in Bahraich district. I was accused of kidnapping her since she was a minor. The Allahabad High Court declined to quash the FIR, although my lawyer was able to prove that my wife had come with me on her own. In our quest to be together, we then knocked on the Supreme Court’s door,” he said.

After their lawyer Dushyant Parashar explained the sequence of events, the nature of their relationship, and the primary reason for the opposition of the girl’s family, the bench in 2013 stayed the investigation in the case, and ordered the girl to be lodged in Lucknow’s Nari Niketan, a shelter home for women.

With the case still pending, the girl turned 18 this month. Parashar requested the bench to let the couple live as husband and wife, and to give its stamp of approval on their wedding.

Before the January 20 hearing, the bench had asked Parashar to convey to the young man that he should dress well to the court, which was inclined to declare his wedding legal.

Seeing him in a sherwani on that day, the court remarked, “Now he really looks like a groom. Tell us you will keep her always happy, and you will never trouble her.” The young man instantly nodded.

The court then ordered: “She has attained majority. There is no justification to continue the investigation and prosecute the appellant. This is a fit case where we think the controversy should be allowed to rest and the appellants should be permitted to live as husband and wife. We say so to avoid all kinds of confusion in future.

“The appellant has undertaken before this court that he would not mistreat (the girl) and give her the affection and respect due to a wife.”

One problem endures, however. The girl’s family is still against their wedding, and the couple apprehend a threat to their lives. They have requested their names be not revealed in this report.

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