Poor don’t abide by marriage laws, HC told
The poor, particularly slum dwellers, do not follow marriage laws and accept new persons in their lives for existence and safety without following divorce formalities, a sub-divisional magistrate has told the Delhi high court.
“It has been noticed that for the poor people, particularly those living in slums, existence and safety is the main issue for which they, with permission from their elders, accept new persons in their lives without following divorce formalities after desertion by their former spouses,” said the Preet Vihar sub-division’s magistrate under east Delhi district.
“Being of socially and economically backward category, they normally do not follow the rules stipulated under the Hindu Marriage Act,” the SDM told a single-judge bench of Justice S. Muralidhar.
The SDM made this observation in his report on an enquiry conducted by him on the court’s order to ascertain the relationship of two women with a 1984 anti-Sikh riot victim Mohan Singh, who was killed by a mob, allegedly led and instigated by late Congress leader and erstwhile East Delhi MP H.K.L. Bhagat.
The court had asked the SDM to conduct the probe after Gopi Kaur and Babita Kaur, claiming themselves, respectively, to be the wife and the daughter of the riot victim, had approached the court seeking disbursement of compensation on account of being Singh’s kin.
They also alleged that the compensation due to them had been misappropriated by another woman Satnami Kaur, claiming herself to be Singh’s widow.
Incidentally, it was on Satnami Kaur’s deposition that she had witnessed Bhagat leading the riotous mob that killed her husband Mohan on November 2, 1984, the Congress leader had been dragged to court to face the trial for the killing during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. She, however, had later turned hostile, leading to Bhagat’s acquittal in the case.
In their petition before the high court, Gopi Kaur and her daughter Babita Kaur had also prayed for recovery of the compensation amount, allegedly misappropriated by Satnami.
Gopi Kaur had claimed before the court that she was married to Mohan at the age of about seven years and to prove her claim, she submitted a whole lot of documents, including affidavits by Mohan Singh’s various relatives endorsing her claims.
Satnami too submitted documents to prove that she was Mohan’s wife and told the court that she had a daughter from Mohan.
The court subsequently ordered a magisterial probe to ascertain the authenticity of the claims and counter-claims by the two women.
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