New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday restrained the Kerala High Court from hearing a petition filed by a 24-year-old woman, seeking protection for her same-sex partner, who, she alleged, is being illegally detained by her parents. The SC order came on the plea of one Devu G who requested a stay of the HC order that directed her 23-year-old partner to go in for counselling sessions for five days, accompanied by her parents.
The petitioner claimed this direction was in contrast to the prayer she made before the Kerala HC, which was to physically produce her partner before the court to determine whether she was being kept in illegal confinement by her parents.
Appearing before the SC bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Devu G’s lawyer Sriram Parakkat told the court that his client’s 23-year-old partner appeared before the HC through video conference and told the court that she was detained against her wishes.
Yet, he said, the high court ordered the partner to go for counselling sessions.
“If she would have been produced physically, she would have had the courage to speak out more,” Parakkat contended.
He informed the bench that according to an earlier court order, the secretary of the District Legal Services Authority of Kollam district had interviewed his client’s partner. In his report, the secretary denied allegations of illegal detention and annexed a handwritten note of Devu G’s partner in support of it.
In response to that report, Devu G filed an application in the HC, raising doubts over the handwritten note, saying it was not in her partner’s handwriting. She had asked the court to direct physical production of her partner in the high court, but it chose to hear her out through video conference.
On hearing Parakkat briefly, the SC issued notice on the petition and listed it for further hearing on 17 February.
In the meantime, it said, the parents of Devu G’s partner shall produce their daughter before a family court in Kollam and arrange for an interview with a member of the Supreme Court e-committee, Salina, who is also a senior judicial officer in the Kerala District Judiciary. The top court said the interview shall be arranged in consultation with the principal judge of the family court in Kollam.
After interacting with the partner, Salina, SC added, shall submit a report on the allegations made by Devu G. The officer in-charge, the top court said, shall ensure the partner’s statement is recorded in a fair manner, without any coercion or influence and submit the report to the top court in a sealed cover.
In her petition, Devu G said the HC’s direction to her partner for counselling in so far as her sexual orientation is concerned was ex facie illegal and implied homosexuality to be a mental health issue that needed to be therapized.
The order was in the “teeth” of her partner’s statement recorded through video-conferencing that she wanted to go with Devu G, the petition stated.
Devu G, who works as a fitness trainer at a studio in Kaloor, Ernakulam, said she has done her post-graduation in English and has been in a relationship with her partner for more than a year.
The HC order is against several SC judgements that have underlined the freedom to choose and the right to decide one’s sexual preferences including the right to stay as live-in partners, the petition submitted. It added that the petitioner and her partner have a right to make individual choices as an adult. The SC verdicts put an obligation on the State to provide all protection to them, the petition added.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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