Supreme Court of India issues rulings on human rights and live-in relationship protections

The Supreme Court of India has upheld Rule 6 of the Karnataka State Human Rights Courts Rules, 2006, ruling that victims of human rights violations can approach a Human Rights Court directly without a prior inquiry by a Human Rights Commission. The Court clarified that the Commission and the Human Rights Court are distinct, complementary mechanisms, and that Rule 6 provides the necessary procedural machinery rather than creating a parallel legal regime.

In separate family law developments, the Supreme Court extended the protections of Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code to live-in relationships that qualify as being “in the nature of marriage.” The ruling, which applies to relationships between two consenting adults with an established intent to marry, aims to harmonize strict penal statute interpretation with the purposive construction of socially beneficial legislation.