A judgment by the Allahabad High Court recently, declining the prayer by an inter-faith couple in a live-in relationship for protection from police harassment has caught national attention. The judgment in Kiran Rawat vs State of UP negates the very idea of constitutional morality in personal relations, which the Supreme Court of India has repeatedly affirmed. The High Court in its judgment implied that the live-in relationship is a “social problem”.
The case of the petitioners, a Muslim man and a Hindu woman, was short and simple: They are around 30 years of age, living together and their relation is based on mutual love and affection. They alleged that the local police have been torturing them while living in a rented house, and sought protection from police harassment, allegedly done on the basis of a complaint made by a family member.
The judgment by the High Court is unacceptable in the constitutional sense. First, the court is ostensibly carried away by the notions of conventional social morality rather than the constitutional principles on individual autonomy and personal liberty. Second, in the process, the court also discarded several Supreme Court judgments, even after citing them, by giving untenable reasons. Third, the High Court travelled much beyond the brief and relied on personal laws on marriage which were irrelevant.
