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Court was hearing a habeas corpus petition by the woman's friend who claimed that she was "missing"
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the parents and maternal uncle of a 22-year-old lesbian woman to undergo counselling in order to prepare themselves to accept her "as per her wishes".
The division bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Neena Bansal Krishna was hearing a habeas corpus petition by the woman's friend who claimed that she was "missing".
After interacting with the parties involved, the court directed the police to take the woman to a shelter home in order to reflect and introspect about her future. The court also directed the police to make necessary arrangements for her boarding and lodging there.
The woman told the court that she was not willing to accompany her parents or any of the relatives and would either go with the petitioner or to the shelter home.
The court directed the Shelter home to admit the woman for her stay and provide necessary facilities, including food, shelter, etc. “The Director is also directed to provide counselling session to the woman”, it added.
“It is further directed that parents of the woman shall also be counselled at least on an alternative day to prepare them to accept her as per her wishes. The parents and maternal uncle are directed to approach the aforesaid shelter home on 23.08.2023 at 11:00 am for counselling, who shall be counselled by the Director and if they wish for further counselling, they shall be counselled accordingly, on the alternate days, thereafter”, the bench ordered.
“The parents and all other concerned are directed not to extend any kind of threat or undue pressure upon X and petitioner herein”, the court said.
In a related news, the Kerala High Court in June 2022, in an unprecedented judgment had allowed a lesbian couple to live together. The plea was filed by Adhila Nasarin alleging that she and her partner were being assaulted and detained by their parents.
Nasarin had filed the plea alleging that she and the detenue(her partner) decided to live as a couple and took shelter at a Safe Home in Kozhikode and then informed their parents. However, the parents, after promising a settlement, took them to the residence of a relative of Nasarin. Nasarin alleged that later, the detenue was forcefully removed from that house, and the her father, who also returned from abroad assaulted her. Given the incident, Nasarin again took shelter in a Safe Home at Aluva and filed the plea.
Earlier, in 2021, Coming to the aid of two major girls, who wanted to live in a live-in relation, the Allahabad High Court had directed the police to grant them protection after verifying all their documents. "We are not against live-in relations," the bench of Justice Dr. Kaushal Jayendra Thaker and Justice Ajai Tyagi had observed.
The petitioner women had come knocking on the Court's doors having an apprehension that they would be harassed and would not be permitted to live in peace by private respondents in the case, i.e. their families. The aggrieved couple had alleged that their parents had threatened to kill them if they didn't end their relationship. They had also been threatened by the families to get falsely implicated in a criminal case.
Case Title: X v. Government of NCT of Delhi & Ors.
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