How couples in India could be jailed for living together

In the first of a two-part series exploring an Indian state's controversial new laws, Shweta Sharma meets some of those who could be imprisoned for failing to register a relationship

Latika and Ankit don't want to get married. It is a personal choice for the couple, who have been dating for more than three years and feel, like millions of other young people in love around the world, that the institution of marriage might change the dynamic of their relationship.

They prefer to live together as cohabiting partners, and have been doing so for the past two years – a situation that, bizarrely, could see them thrown in jail thanks to a new bill that became law this week and may eventually be rolled out across all of India. It stipulates that unmarried couples wanting to live together must publicly register their relationship, and threatens fines and prison sentences of up to three months for those who fail to do so.

Here in the picturesque Himalayan foothills, where The Beatles came to seek spiritual enlightenment, the Uttarakhand state government has become the first in the country to draft and approve a controversial law governing many aspects of people’s private lives, including marriage, divorce, inheritance, property rights and – most controversially – so-called “live-in” relationships.

Since India’s independence, such matters have been governed by what are known as the “personal laws” of individual religions, reflecting the fact that different communities in this hugely diverse country abide by sometimes markedly different customs. It’s why Muslim men are able to have multiple wives, for instance, while the practice of polygamy is illegal for Hindus.