In May 2021, Justice Anil Kshetarpal passed an order dismissing an appeal by a young couple asking from protection on the grounds that "live-in-relationship is morally or socially not acceptable". The young couple had approached the Punjab and Haryana high court seeking protection from their families, who they thought might do them harm.
This order is wrong at multiple levels.
First, the young couple approached the court for protection from physical harm. The Indian Constitution and basic common human rights dictate that nobody has the right to impinge on another's basic right to physical well being. Society, as we know it, has outsourced the use of extreme force to the State. In exchange, we expect the state to protect us when someone means to do us physical harm. When the state abdicates this responsibility, it does so at the risk of society degenerating into anarchy as individuals feel they need to take action to protect themselves.
Second, who a person chooses to live with is a personal choice. Neither the courts nor the individual's parents or relatives should have any say in the matter. The individual's right to choice is sacrosanct and must be protected at all costs. Be it marriage, friendships, relationships, or toothpaste. The biggest thing holding India back has been the tendency of successive governments trying to legislate how the common person should live. This can be traced back to as far back as our first PM who proudly claimed, "Don't talk to me about profit. Profit in a dirty word." It was this attitude that led to India being held back under the yoke of the license raj and robbed the nation of many decades of innovation.
Fortunately, the Supreme Court has take cognizance of the threat to the young couple and instructed the State machinery to provide adequate protection to the couple. In 2018, the Supreme court had held that "assertion of choice is an insegregable facet of liberty and dignity".
Bob Dylan said it best when he sang,
Come mothers and fathers, throughout the land And don't criticize, what you can't understand Your sons and your daughters, are beyond your command Your old road is rapidly agin' Please get out of the new one, if you can't lend your hand For the times they are a-changin'
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