Unmarried Couples Rights: Can unmarried couples stay in the same hotel room without marriage or not?

Mr Journalist, (New Delhi) If you are staying in a hotel with your girlfriend and the police comes to interrogate you, then there is no need to panic. It is not a crime for an unmarried couple to stay together in a hotel. Therefore, the police have no right to harass or arrest any unmarried couple staying in the hotel.

Vinay Kumar Garg, senior advocate of the Supreme Court, says that unmarried couples have the fundamental right to stay together in a hotel and have physical relations with mutual consent. However, the condition for this is that both should be adults. The Supreme Court decision has clearly stated that the right to live with someone of one's own free will and to have physical relations is also included in the fundamental rights granted under Article 21 of the Constitution. For this it is not necessary to be bound by marriage.

This means that if a couple lives together in a hotel without marriage, then it is their fundamental right. Senior advocate Vinay Kumar Garg says that if the police harasses or arrests unmarried couples while staying in a hotel, it will be considered a violation of their fundamental rights. Against this action of the police, the couple can directly approach the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution or the High Court under Article 226.

Complain to senior police officers also

According to Garg, a complaint can also be made to the District Superintendent of Police or a higher police officer against the policeman who harasses the unmarried couple staying in the hotel. Apart from this, the victim couple also has the option to complain to the Human Rights Commission.

In response to a question, Senior Advocate Garg said that the hotel cannot stop an unmarried couple from staying on the ground that both are not married. If the hotel does this, it will also be considered a violation of fundamental rights. This means that unmarried couples can stay there comfortably after paying the hotel rent. Apart from this, the Hotel Association of India, the apex body of the Indian hotel industry, also does not have any rule which stops unmarried couples from staying in any hotel.

Why do police raid hotels?

Police do not raid hotels to arrest or harass unmarried couples. Senior Supreme Court Advocate Vinay Kumar Garg says that prostitution is considered a crime in India. Police raid hotels to protest against such prostitution or on the suspicion that a criminal is hiding there.

If an unmarried couple is staying in a hotel and the police comes to them during a raid, then there is no need for such a couple to panic. On the demand of the police, such a couple will have to show their identity card i.e. ID card, so that it can be proved that both of them are staying in the hotel with mutual consent and are not involved in any kind of prostitution.