Touts issuing runaway couples fake marriage certificates: HC

Taking a serious note of fake marriage and age certificates used by ‘runaway’ couples to obtain protection from courts, the Allahabad high court has directed police to conduct a thorough inquiry into the role of organisations that are involved in the racket of issuing such counterfeit documents and register FIRs against them.
The court was hearing a writ petition filed by a couple from Hapur district seeking police protection as they had “solemnised their marriage without the consent of their parents”.
While fixing November 18 as the next date of hearing in the case, Justice Vinod Diwakar directed authorities concerned to place a compliance report before the court.
The court sought verification report from the local police. On the examination of the report, the court found that the documents attached with the petition, such as Aadhaar IDs, PAN cards, or marksheets were forged.
“Touts and agents provide fake documents to runaway couples to secure protection orders from courts, when in fact no marriage has actually taken place and the register maintained by the trust or society lacks requisite details such as the witnesses’ information, including their mobile numbers, identification documents, and the names of the purohit, president, and secretary of the society,” the court observed.
Taking a serious note of the organized fraud, the court observed, “In essence, unfortunately, an organised racket of touts and agents has emerged around the district courts over a period of time in the name of religious trusts, and the worst part is that the qualified legal professionals, besides purohits, along with touts are also involved.”
The court said the involvement of local police in shielding these rouge elements of the society. “The police often fail to trace the source of the fake marriage certificates and other documents created, allowing run away couples to obtain protection orders from the courts based on forged documents.”
Accordingly, the court in its order dated October 17 directed superintendents of police concerned to conduct a thorough inquiry into the role of such organisations, trusts, and rouge elements involved in such offenses whose role are complicit in commission of the crime.