“Are There Rape Allegations?”: High Court Questions Assam’s Child Marriage Arrests
They raised valid points!
Some steps taken by the government against the ill practices of society might come out to be revolutionary at first but has many loopholes that go unnoticed. One such step was taken by the Assam Government to fight child marriage cases in the state. However, while hearing some of the bail pleas, the High Court raised concerns over this whole crackdown process. They also did not have very encouraging views on the way the Assam government went ahead to arrest people for child marriages under the POCSO act.
The High Court recently approved 9 bail pleas of people arrested during the Assam government’s mission to stop child marriages in the state. During the hearing of these cases, the High Court found the charges on these people questionable and therefore backed its judgements with some valid concerns over it. During the session, the High Court asked the Assam government whether these people arrested had been accused of rape cases too. The court also approved the bail pleas on grounds that this crackdown has created “havoc” in the lives of ordinary families with kids and women. As per the news, the bench that was presided over by Justice Suman Shyam also noted that the people arrested during this campaign were not required to be interrogated by the police, as per the news. The High Court did not particularly comment on the practice of Child Marriage but did present its views on this campaign. They also gave the Assam government permission to file chargesheets against people who have committed crimes under the law after doing a thorough investigation.
Also Read: 1800 People Arrested: Assam CM On Government’s Drive Against Child Marriages
The Assam Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma had tweeted about this campaign and also informed later that around 3000 men were arrested in this case. Post this, many women came out on the roads to show their objections against this crackdown. They too put their problems in the forefront that this campaign created for them. The most important one was that these men were the only earning members of the family. This was duly noted by the High Court during the hearing too.
The court did have some clear views on the campaign that could be agreed on. The Assam government’s efforts might be considered a commendable one, however, the execution failed miserably creating problems in the lives of common people.
