The right to love and live as you please, Pg14

Key Highlights:

• The Allahabad High Court directed police to protect 12 women in live-in relationships, reaffirming constitutional commitment to personal liberty.
• The court stated that live-in relationships are not illegal and do not constitute an offense, rejecting claims that they corrode the "social fabric".
• The judgment prioritizes individual autonomy over majoritarian morality and interprets the Constitution within evolving social realities.
• The ruling comes amid concerns about state intrusion into personal relations, as seen in states like Uttarakhand with the Uniform Civil Code.

Detailed Insights:

• The Allahabad HC's intervention is a necessary corrective, asserting that the law must recognize adults as rights-bearing citizens.
• The judgment counters the uneven outcomes produced by different readings of UP’s Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 in inter-faith live-in relationships.
• Across India, caste, class, and religious orthodoxies continue to police intimacy, with inter-faith and inter-caste couples facing hostility and violence.
• The Supreme Court has consistently affirmed the right of consenting adults to choose their partners without intervention from society or state in cases like Lata Singh (2006), S Khushboo (2010), and Shafin Jahan (2018).

Key Concepts Involved:

• Live-in Relationship: Cohabitation of unmarried individuals who share a domestic partnership.
• Personal Liberty: The right of an individual to act without external constraint or coercion.
• Uniform Civil Code (UCC): A set of laws governing personal matters equally for all citizens, regardless of religion.