Madras high court judge N Anand Venkatesh on April 28 said that in order to understand same-sex orientation better, he fixed an appointment with a psychologist before passing a judgement wherein a same-sex couple sought protection citing threats from their parents.
"The session will help me understand same-sex relationships better and will pave way for my evolution," the judge said.
The judge passed an interim order in a plea where a lesbian couple from Madurai had eloped and moved to Chennai and was seeking protection from their parents who objected to their relationship. The parents had initially filed missing persons complaint.
The Judge had earlier asked the couple and their parents to undergo counselling in order to understand each other better.
With the counselling sessions, there was significant progress between the couple and their parents. The court was then asked to issue certain guidelines to deal with such cases so that same-sex relationships couple are treated with dignity and their safety is also ensured.
"Insofar as the request made by the learned counsel for the petitioners for setting out guidelines in cases of this nature is concerned, I want to give myself some time to churn," the judge said.
He added, "Ultimately in this case, the words must come from my heart and not from my head, and the same will not be possible if I am not fully woke on this aspect. For this purpose, I want to subject myself to psycho-education with Vidhya Dinakaran and I would request the psychologist to fix a convenient appointment for the same."
As per both the parties are concerned, the court noted that the couple is safely taken care of by an NGO and can also continue to talk with their parents on a regular basis, Live Law has reported.
However, the parents of the couple had expressed various concerns regarding the stigma attached to same-sex couples. The court then said that the evolution doesn't happen overnight and guided them to undergo one more round of counselling with the psychologist.
