Delhi High Court orders counselling for parents to accept lesbian daughter "as per her wishes"

The Delhi High Court recently ordered counselling for the parents of a 22-year-old lesbian woman to help them accept their daughter “as per her wishes.”.A division bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Neena Bansal Krishna passed the order on August 22 in a Habeas Corpus plea filed by the partner of the woman.“It is further directed that parents of ****** shall also be counselled at least on an alternative day to prepare them to accept ****** as per her wishes. The parents and maternal uncle are directed to approach the aforesaid shelter home [Shakti Shalini Shelter Home] on 23.08.2023 at 11:00 am for counselling, who shall be counselled by the Director and if they wish for further counselling, they shall be counselled accordingly, on the alternate days, thereafter,” the Court ordered..The Court was informed by the woman's partner that her parents were against their relationship and had taken her away.The woman and her parents appeared before the Court on Tuesday. The judges interacted with the parties in their chamber separately, as well as together.She categorically said that she was not ready to accompany her parents or any of her relatives and expressed her wish to either go with her 23-year-old partner or to the shelter home.Her parents also agreed to send her to the shelter home “to reflect and introspect about her future.”.The Court, therefore, sent her to the shelter and ordered counselling for her as well. It further cautioned her parents and relatives not to extend any threat or pressure upon her or her partner.The Bench further directed the Director, Shakti Shalini Shelter Home to file a status report in the matter and listed the case for further hearing on August 29..Advocates Amritananda Chakravorty, Mihir Samson, Asawari Sodhi, Vaishnavi Prasad and Pradip K Singh appeared for the petitioner.Additional Standing Counsel (Criminal) Sanjay Lao with Advocates Abhinav Kr Arya and Priyam Agarwal appeared for the Delhi Police..Note: Names of the couple as well as the parents have been withheld in the interest of their privacy.