Anadi Tewari
In a significant order, the Supreme Court on Friday (June 04) has granted protection to two Live-In couples, who were earlier denied protection from the Punjab and Haryana High Court citing moral and social grounds.
The vacation bench of Justices Navin Sinha and Ajay Rastogi was hearing 2 SLPs filed against the orders passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, where the High Court has denied protection to the Live-In Couples citing non-legal grounds.
The Supreme Court has gone on to observe that:
“Needless to state that since it concerns life and liberty, the Superintendent of Police is required to act expeditiously in accordance with law, including the grant of any protection to the petitioners in view of the apprehensions/threats, uninfluenced by the observations of the High Court.”
Background of the Issue
On May 11, the single-user bench of Justice H.S. Madaan had refused protection to a live-in couple who approached the Court after they faced opposition to their relationship.
The Court in a terse order charges the couple with approaching the Court so as to obtain a seal of approval on their “morally and socially not acceptable” relationship.
The Court observed that:
“As a matter of fact, the petitioners in the garb of filing the present petition are seeking seal of approval on their live-in-relationship, which is morally and socially not acceptable and no protection order in the petition can be passed.”,
In yet another order denying protection, on May 12, the single-judge bench of Justice Anil Kshetarpal had refused to grant protection to a live-in couple who allegedly faced threats from the girl’s family since their elopement.
The Court in its order has observed that:
“If such protection as claimed is granted, the entire social fabric of the society would get disturbed. Hence, no ground to grant the protection is made out.”
Both the parties of the above cases had approached the Supreme Court in appeal under Article 136 of the Constitution.
Case Details: Gurvinder Singh and Another v. State of Punjab and Others [SLP (Crl.) No. 4028/2021] with [SLP (Crl.) No. 4045/2021]