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By Priya Srinivasan, 360info
The reshaping of constitutionally guaranteed freedoms by bringing young adults’ sexual choices under the radar of the state has sinister implications.
In his poem Law like Love, the great British-American poet W.H. Auden immortalised what many of us struggle to understand about the law. What are its limits? And how does it legislate on matters of the heart?
The Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code 2024, now a law, has a strange clause: Part 3 requires that all live-in relationships — a clause applicable even to non-residents — be registered with the local police station in India's Uttarakhand. Not registering within a month of cohabiting can attract a jail term of three months and a penalty of up to $120. It also excludes queer couples from its ambit, ignoring major milestones in granting equal rights to India's LGBTQIA community.
The Uniform Civil Code was a poll promise by India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2014 general election. In becoming law just over a month away from the upcoming general elections, this can be seen as steps towards its actualisation.
But in bringing the sexual choices of young adults under the radar of the state, this unsubtle reshaping of constitutionally guaranteed freedoms has other sinister implications. Not only does this create possibilities for surveillance, it allows for the creation of a database of couples who are in live-in relationships that do not fall within state-sanctioned ideas of love.
It also means that neighbours and landlords become sources of moral policing and gatekeeping in housing societies in both small and big cities, rapidly shrinking already precarious grounds for couples who are in live-in relationships.
This can be read as the latest in a line of legislations towards regulating desire: a spate of anti-conversion laws across Indian states; the demand for securing parental consent for love marriages in Gujarat; and numerous love-jihad campaigns.
This begs the question: what is love in India?
Read Full Story https://theprobe.in/governance/live-in-relationships-when-states-give-love-a-bad-name-4473470