PESHAWAR, Oct 16: A college girl who married against the wishes of her family was allowed by the Peshawar High Court on Monday to go with her husband.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan and Justice Raj Muhammad Khan observed that both the boy and the girl were adult and had legal right to marry at will.

The bench was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Sajid Khan in which he had requested the court to recover his wife Ms Naveeda from the custody of her parents and to allow her to accompany him.

The bench directed a special police squad to accompany the couple to their residence as a preventive measure.

Earlier, a reconciliatory committee constituted by the court to resolve the issue between the two families could not convince the petitioner’s father to accept the girl as his daughter-in-law.

A member of the committee, Haroon Bilour, told the court that the committee had contacted the boy’s father Saadat Khan and tried to convince him to accept Ms Naveeda as his daughter-in-law. However, Mr Saadat sought one-month time and demanded that during that time his son should convince him that he was right.

The girl told the bench that she was adult and had passed her intermediate examination. She stated that she had married Sajid on her free will but her parents were forcing her to ‘change her decision’. She said she wanted to go with her husband.

On the orders of the court, the girl had been lodged at the residence of the high court’s member inspection team for three days from where she was brought on Monday.

The petitioner stated that Ms Naveeda was his legally wedded wife. He stated that he had been earning his livelihood and could look after his wife.

The court had earlier dismissed his petition on July 11 on the ground that her father-in-law did not agree to accept her as his daughter-in-law.

Saadat Khan, father of Sajid, had claimed that his son was already married and had a son.

The bench, while dismissing the petition, had observed that the boy was dependent on his father and the girl could not be allowed to live with him. The court had ordered that the girl should stay with her family till the time either her father-in-law accepted her or her husband started earning his livelihood.

Sajid filed a fresh petition claiming that he had started his own business and he could now support his wife.

The petitioner claimed that he married Naveeda on Jan 1, 2005, whereas his second marriage was a family arrangement. He claimed that he and Ms Naveeda had contracted marriage on their free will. The couple had been studying in local private colleges.