In strange news, two women from UP’s Hamirpur area divorced their husbands and then they got married to each other. The two women at the age 24 and 26 respectively, fell in love with each other in college. Both the girls were forced to drop out of college when their families stumbled upon their relationship. Later on, they were married off against their wish.
“We were married off six months after leaving college, but could not forget each other. We divorced our husbands and fought a legal battle to stay together again,” they said.
But the two women took an extreme step to divorce their husbands. They said that they do not aim to put any kind of claim to their husbands’ property. They happily tied the knot in a temple to start new innings together and also took vows in front of their lawyer and friends.
Nonetheless, same-sex marriage or civil partnerships are not recognised by the law in India. On the basis of this, the registrar denied registering their marriage.
Daya Shankar Tiwari, the lawyer of the two women, said, “Registrar RK Pal has refused to register the marriage on the ground that there was no government order on same-sex marriage.”
RK Pal said, “How could I have registered the marriage when there is no such provision? Same-sex marriage is not allowed. We don’t even have an online proforma for it.”
The two women are not ready to give up. “Our lawyer has told us that since the Supreme Court has done away with Section 377, we can stay together. No one can trouble us. We have been living together as a couple for some time now,” one of them said.
Their lawyer said he would also challenge the registrar’s decision in the court. “The women are within their legal rights to stay together,” he said.