Court in India rules that lesbian couple can live together

One woman in the relationship had previously been detained by her family, then sent to a mental institution.

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A 24-year-old lesbian woman in India, known only as Aruna, has won the right to live with her 40-year-old girlfriend after being detained by her family and forced into a mental institution.

Aruna's partner of two years, S Sreeja, petitioned the high court for the couple's right to live together. According to Sreeja, Aruna had initially been reported missing by her mother, but soon after faced a local magistrate hearing and was freed.

That's when her family forcibly detained her.

“The court set her free on 14 August. But the minute she came out of the court, she and her partner were manhandled and the younger woman was taken away,” Preetah KK, Sreeja’s lawyer, told the BBC.

Preetah added: "They admitted her to a mental institution in Thiruvananthapuram."

The ruling comes weeks after India's top court decided that gay sex should be decriminalised, abolishing the country's colonial-era anti-gay laws.

"She [Ms Aruna] said that she wanted to go with the petitioner. Based on the Supreme Court verdict, she was allowed to go with the petitioner," Sreeja's lawyer confirmed following the court's ruling.