A court in India's southern state of Kerala has ruled in favour of a lesbian couple who want to live together.
S Sreeja, 40, petitioned the high court alleging her partner Aruna, 24, had been forcibly detained by her family. The court heard that she and Aruna had been in a relationship for two years. They started living together in August.
This is thought to be the first verdict of its kind since the Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality earlier this month in a historic judgment.
In her petition, Ms Sreeja said Ms Aruna had been taken away by the police, a day after moving in with her in Kollam district, about 40km (25 miles) north of the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram.
She alleged that the police had responded to a complaint by Ms Aruna's mother saying she was missing. She said Ms Aruna's family took her away again after a local magistrate hearing the missing person's case had set her free. Read more via BBC
Kerala lesbian couple that got court reprieve say they’ll show society why its prejudices are wrong
The day after the Kerala High Court intervened on Monday to reunite lesbian couple S Sreeja and BM Aruna, who had been forcibly separated by Aruna’s parents in August, the couple said on Tuesday that they wanted to show the world that there was nothing wrong with living with a partner of the same sex. “We want to show society that same-sex couples can also lead normal lives,” said Sreeja.
On Tuesday, the two women were back at Sreeja’s home in Kollam district where they had lived together for just about a day on August 12 before Aruna’s family forcibly separated them.
“I am so proud to come home with my partner,” said Sreeja. “My mother would have been the happiest person if she were alive.”
The High Court order came barely three weeks after the Supreme Court read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code to decriminalise consensual homosexual acts, and after Sreeja filed a habeas corpus petition before it on September 12.
“This was the first same-sex rights case filed in the Kerala High Court after the Supreme Court trashed Section 377,” said her lawyer Ferha Azees.
A love story interrupted
Sreeja, 40, and Aruna, 24, first met through a lesbian dating site in 2016. From casual chatting, their relationship grew stronger and the couple decided to marry in July. Read more via Scroll.in