A High Court judge on Monday observed that recent films and cricket were the cause of society’s ills, and wondered if raising the age of majority would save several youths.
A division bench headed by Justice K Sreedhar Rao was hearing two similar habeas corpus petitions where two 20-year-old girls eloped with 21-year-old boys in separate incidents. The judge observed that youngsters, influenced by recent films, fell in love and got married after fleeing form their homes.
The youths were thus ruining their lives at an age where they ought to be studying and standing up in society, the judge observed. The judge said that when police or courts question their behaviour, they defend themselves saying they were majors.
The bench then wondered if the lives of many teenagers could be saved if the age of majority was raised.
While hearing the case, the bench asked one of the girls whether her parents’ allegation that she was kidnapped by the boy was true. To this, the girl replied that it was she who took the boy with her. The bench then said that before it was boys who used to take away girls, but that the situation had changed with girls taking the lead.
The judge said half the youth were ruining their lives by watching movies and that IPL matches had a bad influence on society. The bench further observed that the country will not see development till cricket was banned.
These days, youngsters don’t respect elders and are forgetting their culture and tradition, the bench observed, and allowed both couples to live together.