The Kerala High Court set a strong precedent on Tuesday by allowing a lesbian couple, Adhila Nasarin and Fathima Noora, to live together after they were forcefully separated by their parents. Adhila had filed a habeas corpus petition following which Fathima, who was allegedly “abducted” by her family, appeared before court. The two judge bench of Justice K Vinod Chandran and C Jayachandran simply asked the couple if they wished to live together, to which they replied yes. The court then helped reunite the couple through a proceeding which lasted for barely a few minutes. Adhila (22), a resident of Aluva, and Fathima (23), a Kozhikode native, have been in a relationship since their school days in Saudi Arabia. They came out to their parents on May 19, and decided to elope and sought shelter at Kozhikode-based Vanaja Collective, an NGO that supports marginalised communities, after undergoing mental torture at home. Both families followed them to Vanaja Collective and tried to separate them again. Adhila’s parents successfully convinced them to come home by feigning support and promising to accept their relationship. They were taken to Adhila’s relative’s house in Aluva, where they were even forbidden from sleeping and faced emotional torture again.