#GoodNews: Kerala HC Allows Lesbian Couple to Live Together

The order was issued by a HC division bench comprising Justice C K Abdul Rehim and Justice K P Narayana Pisharody.

A lesbian couple celebrating Queer Pride at New Delhi, holding placards.

(Photo Courtesy: iStockphoto)

The Kerala High Court has allowed a lesbian couple to live together, in a significant verdict that came weeks after the Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality.

The order was issued by a division bench of the high court comprising Justice CK Abdul Rehim and Justice KP Narayana Pisharody on Monday, 24 September.

The court was considering a plea filed by a 40-year-old woman from Kollam district, alleging that her 24-year-old partner from Thiruvananthapuram had been illegally confined by her family.

She had submitted that her partner was under illegal detention of the parents and she had been mentally and physically tortured and even admitted in the mental hospital, alleging that she was mentally ill.

The petitioner apprehended a threat to the life of her partner.

The 40-year-old woman had submitted the plea, as per the recent decision of the Supreme Court, that the petitioner and the detinue are entitled to live together as life partners.

Earlier this month, a five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court had unanimously decriminalised part of the 158-year-old colonial law under Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalised homosexuality.