‘The Tribune-Chatterati’ 29th.March.2010

Puritans in India are upset over the Supreme Court’s judgment on living together. The three bench judge has dismissed plea to make pre-marital sex and live in relationship as criminal. Activist, usually of a certain age are unable to come to terms with their violation by the court of their sense of culture and national practice. Of course, they may not want to engage in a discussion with their own children on this subject lest they discover that if the court had not dismissed the notion of criminality, their children could pretty much be in hand cuffs. What is encouraging is that the government has stayed totally out of this emotional side show fuelled by some fundamentalist of the social variety. For a notoriously conservative supreme court this is a remarkably forward looking judgment Actress Kushboo who was the prime target of the original matter, is not going to be the only one relieved. Human rights actresses are also going to be thrilled that the apex court has defined that the right to live in is an integral part of the right to life.