Updated: December 21, 2020 7:34:35 am
While declining the couple’s statement, Judge Anu Malhotra said Wednesday that the sentences “are in the realm of speculation” and “currently no such orders can be granted in relation to them.”
“We could not have gotten married in Shahjahanpur, someone would have found out and detained us,” said Shameem, 25, who fled with Simran, 21, from her hometown in Uttar Pradesh last month.
Fearing vigilantism in the name of ‘love jihad’ and with UP police cracking down on interreligious couples citing the newly enacted Ordinance prohibiting illegal conversion of religion in Uttar Pradesh, the interreligious couple had presented a petition to the Superior Court on December 16, seeking protection not only from their families but also from any coercive action by the UP Police.
On Saturday, the couple applied to register their marriage under the Special Marriage Law after the Delhi government assured the High Court on Wednesday that they would be provided with a safe house and also police security, if necessary.
The court, however, did not enter into its apprehensions against the UP Police. The couple had asked for instructions to ask the Delhi authorities to ensure that, should UP police conduct an investigation, they would not be removed from the jurisdiction of the Delhi High Court without their prior authorization.
While declining the couple’s statement, Judge Anu Malhotra said Wednesday that the sentences “are in the realm of speculation” and “currently no such orders can be granted in connection with them.”
Speaking to The Indian Express, the couple said they fled Shahjahanpur in November because Simran’s family was allegedly forcing her to marry another man, adding that they do not plan to return anytime soon as they feared retaliation from vigilantes and authorities.
“The new law is a problem for interfaith couples. That was one of the reasons we left Shahjahanpur, ”Shameem said.
“Agar wahan se karte, toh love jihad keh dete (if we had gotten married there, they would have called it love jihad)… even if they hadn’t forced me to marry, they would have said it because I’m with a Muslim boy. At UP, they do this deliberately to catch the man, ”added Simran.
The couple said they met in April 2017 at a training center, where Simran was studying to join the police and Shameem for a banking job. “He was good at studies, so we started talking and we got closer,” Simran said.
While Shameem, a BTech graduate from Lucknow, later moved to Delhi, where she worked for a car company, Simran stayed in Shahjahanpur, working as an accountant – a job, she says, left “due to family pressure” during closing. .
The couple told The Indian Express they feared retaliation from their families as much as from vigilantes and UP authorities.
“I was mostly at home during the lockdown and my family suspected that I was talking to someone on the phone for a long time. They started forcing me to marry, ”Simran said.
He said his family did not suspect that the man he was in contact with was Muslim until he left for Delhi in November.
Once in Delhi, they contacted an NGO that helped them move out of the court.
Shameem said that until last month, her family had not known about their relationship. “Even if they object, I cannot leave her or ask her to change her religion. I will get married under the Special Marriage Law, ”he said.
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