HC directs Uttar Pradesh Police to provide protection to Hindu-Muslim lesbian couple

The Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh Police to provide protection to a Hindu-Muslim lesbian couple whose families had threatened their live-in relationship, Bar and Bench reported.

In the order dated September 14, Justice Gautam Chowdhary noted that the petitioners were adults and had the freedom to live together peacefully without interference from their families.

The counsel representing the couple had urged the court to provide them immediate police protection, saying that they belonged to different religions, were unmarried and faced a serious threat to their lives from their family members, the legal news outlet reported.

The state government said that same-sex relationships were not socially accepted, arguing that they have a negative effect on the traditional framework of society.

The court, however, said that under the law laid down by the Supreme Court, two consenting adults have a fundamental right to choose to live together in a live-in relationship, the judge was quoted by The Times of India as having noted.

The judge also observed that the absence of marital recognition does not give anyone the right to violate the dignity or threaten the physical safety of adult citizens.

In a landmark judgement on September 6, 2018, the Supreme Court had read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, and held that the provision could not be used...

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