Hindu Marriage Act for STs
RSD- Telangana news: The High Court has recently ruled that ST (Lambada) couples who have married according to Hindu tradition can be granted divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act. Section 2(2) of the Hindu Marriage Act is exempted because the marriage is according to Hindu tradition. Under this section, the Center has to notify the Hindu Marriage Act to apply to STs, and divorce can be granted under the same Act even if the Center does not notify the marriage as per Hindu tradition. ST girl and boy from Mylaram Thanda, Narsulabad Mandal, Kamareddy District got married in May 2019. Disagreements arose after a year of marriage. They separated in 2023 as per the agreement of elders. An agreement was reached that the husband should pay Rs.9 lakhs to the wife and the jewelery should be given to whomever it belongs to. Later they filed a petition in the court under Section 13(b) of the Hindu Marriage Act for divorce by mutual consent. However, the Cree Court rejected the petition as inapplicable under Section 2(2) of the Act without notifying the Centre, and the petition was not maintainable.
Challenging this decision, the husband approached the High Court. Judge Justice Alishetty Lakshminarayana took up the inquiry and gave a verdict recently. Counsel for the petitioner argued that both of them who are seeking divorce belong to the Meena tribe of the Lambada community. They got married according to Hindu tradition including Saptapadi. If Hindu law is not applied to them, injustice will be done to the women of this tribe and polygamy will be practiced, he said. After hearing the arguments, the Supreme Court, Delhi and AP High Courts have given verdicts stating that Section 2(2) of the Hindu Marriage Act should be implemented to protect the customs and traditions of the identified tribes. Since the marriage took place here according to Hindu tradition, the lower court was ordered to grant divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act. The judgment made it clear that the lower courts will have to take a decision based on the circumstances of the respective cases.
