High Court permits couple to live together

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, June 26, 2012 : The High Court of Karnataka ruled on June 25, Monday that a man and a woman belonging to different religions, who got married against their parents’ wishes, can live together as husband and wife.

The couple is Rihana and Vincent of Konaje, who were in a relationship for the past 8 years. They got married last year and stayed with their parents after marriage. However, on May 18, they eloped and started living together.

On May 19, Rihanas’ father Husainar lodged a complaint with the Konaje police and filed a habeas corpus in the high court. Accordingly, the couple appeared in court on Monday and was permitted to live together as husband and wife. Reportedly, Rihana had converted to Christianity and Vincent’s family had no objection to the marriage. The couple also accused Rihana’s family of threatening to kill them.

Husainar claims that Rihana was engaged to be married to someone else. He said that he had arranged the required funds for her marriage and had spend nearly Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 30,000 on her engagement. He said that he would have been saved a lot of trouble if she had told him the truth in advance. He also said that Rihana had told him that Vincent used to call her up and disturb her two weeks before her engagement, but Rihana denied this.

Rihana also begged her father’s forgiveness for marrying against his wishes, but Husainar refused to forgive her, stating that she had brought shame on her family.