The Allahabad High Court on Thursday said that two adults have the right to choose their matrimonial partners irrespective of their religion, Bar and Bench reported.

A division bench of Justices Manoj Kumar Gupta and Deepak Verma made the observation as it granted protection to an inter-faith couple from Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur city, according to The Times of India.

“As the present petition is a joint petition by the two individuals who claim to be in love with each other and are major [legal term to denote that the couple are adults], therefore, in our considered opinion, nobody, not even their parents, could object to their relationship,” the court said.

The court was hearing the plea of a 19-year-old Muslim woman and her 24-year-old Hindu partner. The couple had approached the High Court seeking police protection of their life and liberty, according to Live Law.

The couple moved the court after the woman’s parents and the man’s father objected to their marriage.

Thus, the court directed the police to ensure that the petitioners did not face any harassment from their parents or from any other person.

The woman had also filed an application to convert into Hinduism based on which the district magistrate sought a report from the police, according to Bar and Bench.

The Allahabad High Court had in August held a sub-divisional magistrate in contempt of court and sent notices to the families of an inter-faith couple who wanted to get married under the Special Marriage Act.

The court had said that such action could jeopardise the applicants’ intentions of getting married and become a cause for “threat to their lives or limb” due to interference from their parents.