Bhiwani, June 12
The controversy over the marriage of Surinder Kumar, a lower caste boy of Kharkari village, to Poonam, an upper caste girl of Dhanana village in Sonepat district, took a curious turn today with reports surfacing here that the girl had been married off on Saturday to a boy of her own caste hailing from Seinkh village of Panipat district.
Neither Mr Surinder Kumar nor any of members of his family was available for comments at Kharkari and here. No one in the village was willing to reveal their whereabouts. In Dhanana, too, no member of the Poonam’s family was present.
However, the villagers confirmed that the parents of Poonam had received an offer from a boy of Seinkh village belonging to Malik gotra of the Jat community which they accepted.
Accordingly, she was allegedly married on Saturday, a day before the Sheoran Chaurasi was to hold a mahapanchayat at Kharkari village, which was eventually banned by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday following a petition filed by Mr Surinder Kumar.
The villagers said on condition of anonymity that members of the Poonam’s family had left the village on Saturday night. They were now residing at the place of posting of Poonam’s father, who is an Army man.
They said during the Sheoran Chaurasi panchayat Kharkari on May 28, Mr Surinder Kumar and Poonam’s father had submitted affidavits to the panchayat leaders saying that they were dissolving the marriage willingly. The two families took back the gifts they had given to each other in the marriage.
Immediately after Poonam’s family returned to Dhanana, the Kathura Barah panchayat met there and imposed a token fine of Re1 on the family for its role in the inter-caste marriage. Poonam’s family was also asked to sweep all seven chaupals of the village for seven days.
However, after paying the fine and sweeping chaupals the next day, the panchayat remitted the rest of the sentence.
According to the villagers, the proposal from Seinkh village was received on Thursday last and the marriage was solemnised on Saturday in the presence of fellow villagers.
However, by that time Mr Kumar had filed a petition in the High Court seeking directions to the
panchayat not to interfere with his married life.
The whole controversy has raised important legal issues. Is Poonam’s marriage to the Malik boy valid, especially since her marriage to Mr Kumar has not been dissolved legally yet? If it is not, she faces criminal
proceedings for remarrying without a divorce.While the naive villagers maintain the affidavits by parents dissolving the marriage are sufficient, legal experts say these have no legal validity. They say Mr Surinder Kumar had already stated in the court that he was married to Poonam and thus the second marriage was patently illegal.
Lawyers said it would not be possible for Mr Surinder Kumar to just forget his marriage to Poonam and let the controversy die over a period since the court was apprised of the matter and it would certainly not allow any illegalities to be committed.
They said poor Poonam might eventually face the fate of a Muslim woman Gudiya who hit the headlines sometime ago when her first husband who was presumed dead resurfaced after her second marriage.
Besides, the second marriage will also give the self-styled panchayats the much-needed clout they keep clamouring for.
