Love is not a Crime, even if He's Married: HC separates legal guilt from Social Stigma, orders Police Protection against honour killing threat

The Allahabad High Court has delivered a sharp reminder that law and social morality occupy entirely different lanes, ruling that a married man in a consensual live-in relationship with an adult woman commits no offence under Indian law. A Division Bench of Justice JJ Munir and Justice Tarun Saxena, hearing the case of Anamika and Another v. State of UP and Others, granted immediate protection to the Shahjahanpur couple, who feared honour killing at the hands of the woman's family, and placed the Superintendent of Police under personal accountability for their safety.

Anamika, an adult woman, had been living by her own free will with Netrapal, a married man, when her family turned hostile, threatening the couple's lives and ultimately filing a kidnapping case under Section 87 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, to force her return. The woman had already approached the Shahjahanpur Superintendent of Police with a written application asserting her autonomy and flagging the death threats, yet the complaint gathered dust with zero action taken.

Counsel for the family doubled down before the court, arguing that cohabitation with a married man was itself criminal, a contention the bench swiftly dismantled, drawing a firm line between what society disapproves of and what the law actually prohibits.

The bench's reasoning cut straight to the constitutional bone, personal choices between consenting adults do not become criminal merely because a section of society finds them objectionable. The Court was unambiguous, "Morality and law have to be kept apart. If there is no offence under the law made out, social opinions and morality will not guide the action of the Court for protecting the rights of citizens." Invoking the Apex Court's landmark ruling in Shakti Vahini v. Union of India, the bench underscored that protecting adults in live-in relationships is an explicit police obligation, not a discretionary favour.

The Court issued notice to the State returnable on April 8, granted the couple a blanket stay against arrest in the kidnapping case, restrained the woman's family from any contact or interference, and placed the Shahjahanpur SP under direct personal responsibility for the couple's physical safety.