Supreme Courtroom to U’khand: Consenting adults can reside with whoever they want

In a much-needed actuality examine, the Supreme Courtroom of India just lately reminded the state (but once more) that two consenting adults selecting to reside collectively — no matter their faith — shouldn’t be a legal offence.

As per a report within the Hindustan Occasions, this reminder got here whereas the Courtroom granted bail to a Muslim man who had already spent practically six months behind bars. His crime? Daring to marry a Hindu lady. Sure, actually.

Whereas the Uttarakhand Excessive Courtroom had earlier turned down his bail plea, the Supreme Courtroom, in a current ruling by Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma, stepped in and did what the decrease courtroom refused to: uphold primary constitutional rights.

“The respondent-state can’t have any objection to the appellant and his spouse residing collectively,” the justices mentioned, stating that each households had supported the wedding. In different phrases, nobody from both facet of the aisle was screaming foul — besides the state equipment and its ever-watchful morality police.

For these unfamiliar with the authorized panorama in a number of Indian states as of late, this is some context: legal guidelines just like the Uttarakhand Freedom of Faith Act, 2018 — typically dubbed “anti-conversion” legal guidelines — have more and more been wielded as blunt devices towards interfaith {couples}. These legal guidelines presume, with astonishing frequency, that any union involving a Muslim man and a non-Muslim lady should certainly contain deceit, coercion, or conversion.

So it’s hardly surprising (although nonetheless outrageous) that an FIR was filed solely after some third-party busybodies — people and teams completely unrelated to the couple — determined that their marriage was unacceptable. The FIR on the coronary heart of this case was conveniently filed on 12 December final 12 months, simply two days after the couple tied the knot on 10 December. Location: Rudrapur police station, Udham Singh Nagar district, Uttarakhand. Clearly, somebody wasted no time turning post-wedding bliss right into a legal investigation.