A Panel of Indian Judges Backs Unmarried Couples

Jakarta Globe, March 24, 2010

New Delhi. India’s Supreme Court has supported the right of unmarried couples to live together as judges heard a case involving an actress accused of corrupting young minds by promoting pre-marital sex.

A three-judge panel sitting in New Delhi pointed out on Tuesday that even Hindu gods Lord Krishna and Radha were cohabiting lovers, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

“When two adult people want to live together, what is the offense?” the judges said. “Living together is not an offence. Living together is a right to life.”

Indian actress Khusboo, who uses only one name, appealed to the court to quash more than 20 cases filed against her in 2005 after she made allegedly immoral comments in interviews with magazine journalists.

She told one publication that “no educated man would expect his [bride] to be a virgin” — sparking outrage in parts of southern India, where she is a star of Tamil-language movies.

“We are not bothered. At the most it is a personal view,” the judges said, while the panel reserved judgement on Khusboo’s petition.

They challenged lawyers acting for the complainants to produce evidence of any woman running away from her family with a lover in response to the actress’s comments.

Marriage remains the central focus of most Indian lives, with weddings celebrated in lavish style.

Khusboo, 39, took her legal battle to the Supreme Court after the high court in Chennai in 2008 dismissed her plea for quashing the criminal cases filed against her.

Agence France-Presse