In the case of Adhila v Commissioner of Police & Ors. Two young women who had been close friends since elementary school were shocked when their parents refused to let them live together. One-half of the pair filed a habeas corpus petition, which the Kerala High Court granted. The two are Adila Nazreen (22 years old) and Fathima Noor (23 years old). They have been working in Chennai for a time. However, when they decided to tell their parents about their plan to live together, there was significant opposition, and Noor was taken away by her parents forcibly.
In her social media video posts, she claimed that not only had her friend's family taken her away by force but that the police had also done nothing to bring her back. However, the police claimed that they had intervened in the case from the beginning and that the other woman, a Kozhikode native, had given written consent to leave with her parents. According to the social media posts, they also conducted research on the same-sex or LGBTIQ community and gathered contact information for various groups, organisations, and individuals who support them.
Following that, the Ernakulam resident travelled to Kozhikode to meet her friend, and the two sought refuge in a home run by Vanaja Collective, which claims to work for the welfare of the LGBTIQ community, on May 19. Following that, their parents met them at home, and on the assurances of protection provided by the family of the Ernakulam residents, both women accompanied them. Police were called after Noor’s family arrived at the shelter and created a scene, but the couple allegedly refused to accompany their families. Akhila's parents allegedly convinced the NGO that they would care for the partners and abducted them. Akhila filed a police report on May 23 alleging that Noor’s parents abducted her.
Their families allegedly blackmailed and emotionally tortured both women in their homes. Then one day, the mother, sister, and others known to the Kozhikode native arrived with a petition claiming she had been abducted and was being held against her will, according to the Ernakulam resident. According to the posts, they asked the Ernakulam resident's father to hold her back and dragged her partner away. She claimed that she could only contact her friend a few days later when the latter was reportedly in some clinic in Malappuram and that there has been no contact from her since then.
According to her post, even the Kozhikode native's family is not reachable by phone because their numbers are turned off. The two women met in Saudi Arabia while they were in Class XI at the same school. According to her posts, they realised they were both lesbians and in love by Class XII. When their parents found out about their relationship, they lied and said they would end it, but they continued their relationship after they returned to India and started college.
The court allowed the women to live together, asking police for instructions to introduce her partner, a native of Kozhikode, who is said to have been forcibly removed from her parents' home by police. The court initially ordered the Kozhikode native to appear before it, and when she did, she stated that she wanted to live with the petitioner.
The court accepted their request because both women were adults who wished to live together. The petitioner, an Ernakulam native, had initially used social media to draw attention to her same-sex relationship with a schoolmate, their families' opposition to it, and the subsequent removal of her partner, allegedly by force by the latter's parents.
Submitted by Sushant Harit