The Gauhati high court raised some challenging issues regarding the Assam government's campaign against child marriages, which resulted in the arrest of thousands of individuals. The court granted anticipatory bail to nine individuals while noting that the campaign had "wreaked havoc in the private lives of people." These "are not matters for custodial interrogation," it stated.
Judge Suman Shyam stated that the allegations against the child marriage accused under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act, 2012 and the charges of rape are "totally bizarre" allegations.
“…There are children, there are family members, there are old people. This may not be a good idea to go for … obviously it is a bad idea,” the judge said. “You proceed as per law, we have nothing to say. If you find somebody guilty, file a chargesheet. Let him or her face trial and if they are convicted, they are convicted,” he said.
Granting immediate bail to the nine arrested people who had moved court, Justice Shyam observed, “If marriage is taking place in violation of law, the law will take its own course. . . We will only consider if immediate custodial interrogation is required or not. At this moment, this court thinks that these are not matters for custodial interrogation. We will ask them to appear and record their statements. These are not NDPS, smuggling, stolen property cases. ”
In opposition to the 4,225 child marriage instances that have been registered as of February 14, a total of 3,031 people have been detained. The crackdown had started on February 3 with 4,004 FIRs.