Chennai: The Madras high court has referred the matter relating to an advocate, who manipulated documents as if a minor boy is a major and got the marriage with a major girl registered, to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry for appropriate action against him.
“A perusal of the entire documents produced before us would show that the same have been prepared by advocate E.Lenin and manipulated as if Vignesh is a major and got the marriage registered. We were pained to note this. Legal profession is not mentioned for conducting marriages. Hence, we consider it appropriate to refer the matter to the BCTP for appropriate action”, said a division bench comprising Justices C.T.Selvam and N.Sathish Kumar.
Closing a HCP, from V.Ganesan, the father of Mahalakshmi, the bench said, ‘We also note that the sub-registrar, Poonamallee, had casually resorted to register the marriage without due and proper verification with regard to the age of the boy and girl. In this regard, the inspector general of registration shall conduct the enquiry and take appropriate action legally”.
Ganesan filed the HCP to produce his daughter Mahalakshmi (19) from the illegal custody of Micheal Vignesh, before the court and set her at liberty.
The bench said the detenue has been produced before this court by the police. She was accompanied by Micheal Vignesh, as also his parents The petitioner and his wife were also present. Initia-lly, Mahalakshmi and Micheal Vignesh informed the court that their marriage has been registered before sub-registrar, Poonamallee on January 22, 2018. They produced a marriage certificate. In support of their contention that Vignesh was of marriageable age, they have produced Xerox copy of the record sheet ostensibly issued by the principal, Government Adi Dravidar Welfare High School, Tiruvallur district. The same reflects the date of birth of Vigneshas June 7, 1995. Counsel for the petitioner produced a xerox copy of the transfer certificate issued by SA Polytechnic College, Chennai, which states his date of birth as October 19, 1997. Though initiated they denied attending the polytechnic college, after much probing, they accepted the same. They also informed the court that the entire arrangements towards the marriage had been made by their advocate E.Lenin, the bench added and gave the above directive.
