HC asks city police to protect run-away UP couple

Coming to the rescue of a runaway couple from Uttar Pradesh, the Delhi High Court today asked the city police to protect them during their stay here.

"Take their (the couple) address and provide them security," Justice S P Garg, acting on the newly-wed couple's plea that the parents and relatives of the bride, who did not approve their marriage, were threatening them.

The petition, filed through lawyer M M Khan, said the youth and his bride were major and married "out of their own free will" but the parents of the girl did not approve their marriage as it was an inter-religion marriage.

During the hearing, the counsel for Delhi Police said the couple did not live at the address given in the petition.

Disposing of the petition, Justice Garg asked the counsel for the couple to provide the actual address to the police to enable it provide security to them.

The man, who was in love with a Rampur-based girl, had married the girl on June 6 here after she "willingly" converted to Islam, the petition said.

"The petitioners want to lead a happy married life. It is, however, not possible for them to live peacefully without proper protection. They are being forced to keep changing their shelter...," it said.

The couple's counsel filed 'nikahnama' and the school certificates of the girl in support of the plea that they were majors and had married voluntarily.