Unmarried Couples Are Real Family Units Says Apex Court: Does Society Agree?

Unmarried couples living together often face social wrath for challenging norms. However, Supreme Court of India’s recent judgment has made an attempt to demolish this mindset by challenging our definition of a "family unit".  As per the Apex Court, unmarried couples and queer couples may be an atypical manifestation of the family but they are as real as traditional families. But will this make the lives of live-in partners easy?

A bench of justice consisting of DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna said on Sunday, 28th August, "this assumption ignores both, the many circumstances which may lead to a change in one's familial structure, and the fact that many families do not conform to this expectation, to begin with. Familial relationships may take the form of domestic, unmarried partnerships or queer relationships."

This is not the first time that the court has backed live-in and same-sex relationships in India. Unmarried couples have the legal freedom to sit and roam together in public until no “obscene things” happen. But despite all this, unmarried couples do not feel safe and free in our society. They hesitate from holding hands in public, living together is still a distant dream. Just recently a husband was thrashed for kissing his wife in public. If such is the treatment meted out to married couples, one can only imagine the level of moral policing that live-in couples must have to deal with. But what is the reason behind society’s behest towards love and affection especially between two unmarried people?

If you do not live under the stone, you must be aware of the fact of how difficult it is for unmarried couples to even book a hotel room, let alone rent an apartment. Unmarried couples are humiliated not only by authorities, their families too try and force them into marriage just to avoid social scrutiny. Why do we continue to hold a dysfunctional institution such as marriage in such high regards? Why do we prioritise preserving our faulty social fabric over people's individual happiness? No one should need social approval to live with a person they love.

Suggested Reading: When Will Parents Stop Treating Their Daughters As Strangers After Marriage?

So will Supreme Court’s judgment help rule out the rules of morality in our society concerning unmarried couples? Will society now be accepting of unmarried couples in hotels, parks and even rented flats? Will society stop deeming display of affection by unmarried couples as obscene, immoral and blotch on the traditions of society?

The answers to these questions cannot be answered yet. If society didn’t consider the previous rulings regarding unmarried couples, what are the chances to follow this? In our society, traditions, and morality play a vital role in forming rules and regulations, not the constitution or court. And unless the haze of narrow-minded rules of society sheds, society will never follow the rules of court if they are against social rules.

In order to bring this change, society needs to think beyond its outdated understanding of relationships. People need to accept that traditional thoughts and morality are obsolete in this modern time when freedom to choose is the sole rule governing society. The definition of family has evolved to include ">married couples, unmarried couples, same-sex couples and even people who do not want to put a label on their relationship. Everyone has the equal right to construct their own family based om their understanding of the term. Love and affection see no boundary of caste, religion and gender, we stop seeing these parameters when we define a family too.

Views expressed are the author's own.