The Allahabad High Court on Monday said that the 2021 Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act does not prohibit live-in relationships among interfaith couples, The Indian Express reported.

The bench of Justice Vivek Kumar Singh made the observation while hearing 12 petitions filed by Hindu and Muslim women seeking police protection after allegedly receiving threats for being in a live-in relationship with men from another religious community.

The court said that it does not view the couples as Hindu and Muslim, and instead as two adults who consensually live together for a considerable time, PTI reported.

“The right to live with a person of his/her choice, irrespective of religion professed by them, is intrinsic to the right to life and personal liberty,” the bench was quoted as having said. “Interference in a personal relationship, would constitute a serious encroachment into the right to freedom of choice of the two individuals.”

The judge added: “This court fails to understand that if the law permits two persons even of the same sex to live together peacefully, then neither any individual nor a family nor even the state can have objection to heterosexual relationship of two major individuals who, out of their own free will, are living together.”

The bench granted relief to the couples, saying that they are at liberty to approach the police for redressal of their grievances.

It ordered that the police must examine the complaints and the age of the petitioners. If the authorities find substance in the allegations, they must act in accordance with the law to protect the life and liberty of the petitioners, the court was quoted as having ordered.

Living in an interfaith relationship does not deprive the persons of their fundamental rights, the court said, adding that there can be no discrimination based on caste or religion.

The court said that for matters to attract provisions of the anti-conversion law, a conversion from one religion to another was a prerequisite. Additionally, the conversion needed to have taken place through misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion or allurement or by fraudulent means, or by marriage, PTI quoted the court as saying.