The Punjab and Haryana High Court, while dealing with matter, has referred a question, whether the court can grant protection to two persons who are living together, without examining their marital status, to a larger bench.
The bench has also added that if the answer to the issue is in negative, under what circumstances court would be expected to deny the protection.
In the instant case, the petitioners had approach the court and sought for appropriate directions for granting them protection from the respondents. The petitioner no. 1 had been married and due to the strained relations with his wife, he ran away with petitioner no. 2 but the same is not accepted by the private respondents. It is stated that the petitioner no. 1 had not obtain a divorce.
The reason behind referring the matter to a larger bench was that various benches of court, of co-ordinate strength, have delivered different opinions on the matter, which could not be easily reconciled.
It is to be noted that the bench, while framing the said questions, had used the expression “persons” and not “adults.” The reason behind this had been the number of instances wherein the court had granted protection to both the petitioners who were not adults.
Looking back at the precedents set by Punjab and Haryana High Court, there have been occasions, depending upon the facts of cases, where the court had denied protection to the petitioners. Interesting, there have been instances where a contrary view had been taken by the court.
The court has been lenient towards the rights of live-in partners and has acknowledged such relationships, though the society still shows its reluctance. The court has held their rights in view of right to life and liberty of each individual; each individual has a right to make a choice.
The bench has referred the two questions to a larger bench so as to come up with a uniform opinion for such relationships.
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