BADAR DURREZ AHMED, J 1. Jitender Kumar Sharma and Poonam Sharma fell in love, eloped together and got married. The problem is that they are both minors: Jitender is just under 18 years of age and Poonam is 16 years old. The further problem is that Poonam‘s family is strongly opposed to this alliance. Her parents, grandfather and paternal uncle who have been attending the court proceedings are not ready to accept this marriage at any cost. So much so, that Poonam has serious apprehensions about the safety to her life and to the life of Jitender. Another complication is that Jitender‘s sister happens to be Poonam‘s paternal uncle‘s wife. And, perhaps because of this incident, the uncle has turned out his wife (Jitender‘s) sister from her matrimonial home.

2. Without any information to their respective families Poonam and Jitender ran away from their homes and got married according to Hindu rites and customs on 3.5.2010 at Shiv Mandir, Garima Garden, Sahibabad (U.P.). On that date itself, not knowing the whereabouts of Poonam and suspecting that she had gone with Jitender, Poonam‘s father (Shri Jai Prakash Sharma) lodged First Information Report bearing No.110/2010 at Police Station Gandhi Nagar, New Delhi under section 363 of the Indian Penal Code. Subsequently, when it was revealed that Jitender and Poonam had lived as husband and wife, section 376 IPC was also added. On 5.5.2010 a typed letter signed by Poonam was received at PS Gandhi Nagar in which she stated that she had married Jitender and requested that no case be registered on the complaints of her parents. On 6.5.2010, Jitender and Poonam were apprehended‘ from Bilaspur, District Rampur, U.P. Both were produced before the concerned court in Delhi. Jitender, being a juvenile, was sent to Sewa Kutir Bal Sudhar Ghar and Poonam was handed over to her parents. Poonam refused to undergo an internal medical examination and her mother also did not give her consent. In her statement recorded under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, Poonam did not state anything against Jitender.

3. On 12.05.2010, Poonam‘s father once again went to PS Gandhi Nagar to report that Poonam was missing from his house since 11.05.2010. Information was received that Poonam had gone to Jitender‘s house. The police reached there and took away Poonam for production before the concerned court where, on refusing to go with her parents, she was sent to Nirmal Chhaya. From there, she was, once again, taken by her parents to their home. It is pertinent to mention that Poonam had given in writing that she had left her parents‘ home of her own will and went to Jitender‘s house, as that was the house of her in-laws. It must also be pointed out that all this happened when Jitender, himself, was lodged in Sewa Kutir Bal Sudhar Ghar. Jitender was released on bail much later, on 03.06.2010.

4. Apparently, on 11.06.2010 Poonam‘s mother went to the police station and alleged that Poonam had been kidnapped‘by Jitender. Raids were conducted at the houses of Jitender and his relatives but Poonam was not there. On 11.06.2010 Poonam wrote letters to various police authorities, with a copy to Jitender, indicating that she married Jitender of her own free will; that her parents wanted to get her married to someone else without her consent; that her parents were beating her and that she did not want to live with them but was being forcibly kept by them; that she wanted to live with her husband; that she was writing this letter as she had got an opportunity; that she feared that her father, brother and grandfather would kill them. In the end, she questioned Please tell me, is it a sin to marry on account of one’s free will? Is it such a big offence that a person ought to be killed? And, is the fact that I married out of my own volition such a big sin that my father, mother, brother and grandfather beat me every day?

5. Poonam is said to have sent another hand-written letter on or about 25.06.2010 to