The Supreme Court on Tuesday came to the rescue of two lovers who married against the wishes of their village panchayat in Haryana.
A bench comprising Justice N Santosh Hegde, Justice B P Singh and Justice S B Sinha directed the Haryana police to give protection to them.
The story of the couple, belonging to Badshahpur village in Gurgaon district, could well be the script for a Bollywood blockbuster.
The boy and the girl, belonging to different communities, fled to Muzaffarnagar and got married in a temple on July 21, 2004.
In the meantime the girl's parents came to know where she was. They took her away and got her married to another person.
But she escaped from her husband's house and went back to her lover.
When they were going to register their marriage in Muzaffarpur, the police detained them.
The girl was handed over to her parents with the warning that she should not go against the order of her parents and the panchayat, which was against the love affiar.
She escaped yet again, and headed straight to the Supreme Court with her lover to seek protection.