Pune: Bombay High Court Orders Safe House for Hindu-Muslim Couple Seeking Protection
Mumbai/Pune, 20th December 2024: The Bombay High Court on Thursday instructed the Maharashtra state government to immediately provide a safe house to an interfaith couple seeking protection, citing concerns for their safety. The state assured the court that the safe house would be provided by 6 p.m., and the couple was promptly relocated.
This marks the first instance of an interfaith couple being granted a safe house in Pune, following the state home department’s recent issuance of a standard operating procedure for securing such couples, along with guidelines for setting up safe houses.
The couple, both 23 years old, consists of a Hindu man from Pune and a Muslim woman from Mumbai. They met and fell in love in 2019 while studying at a Mumbai college. However, both families opposed their relationship, prompting the couple to seek safe accommodation in Mumbai due to threats from their families.
They applied to marry under the Special Marriage Act on December 14. Their lawyers, Mihir Desai and Lara Jesani, explained that the woman resigned from her job on December 10 because of familial disapproval, and the man, who must return to work on Monday, requested police protection.
The division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan, after hearing arguments from senior counsel Desai and additional public prosecutor Prajakta Shinde, ordered that the police station or the Thane Police Commissioner make a decision on the man’s pending protection request within 48 hours.
Upon being informed that the safe house would have a police guard, the court further directed, “We order the police station to provide an additional guard until the petitioners remain in the safe house. The guard will be provided starting today,” the order read.
Shinde confirmed that the police would comply with the High Court’s directives.
