The Supreme Court on Monday cautioned the Kerala High Court against the possibility of using counseling as a tool to influence the gender identity or sexual orientation of a person.A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said that while counseling can be used to ascertain wishes of an individual in cases relating to illegal detention, it would be inappropriate to influence one's gender identity or sexual orientation by such counselling.The Court was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by a 21-year-old woman alleging that her lesbian partner was being illegally detained by her parents.The observation was made by the apex court after it was alleged that High Court, instead of granting relief, had ordered that the detenu attend a counselling session allegedly to change her sexual orientation."We wish to address a note of caution that High Court has been passing orders directing counselling of detenue and there is an apprehension that counselling should not turn into a means to change her sexual orientation, ascertaining the wishes of a person is one thing but it would be quite inappropriate to influence one's gender identity or sexual orientation by an alleged counselling," the Supreme Court said.As regards the relief sought, the Court noted that it had earlier directed a member of the Supreme Court E-committee to meet the detenue and ascertain her wishes and whether she was being kept illegally under custody by her parents as alleged.Pursuant to that, the E-committee member interacted with the detenue who denied that she was being kept under illegal custody.She said that she was staying with her parents on her own will and does not want to marry or live with anyone else."This court on Feb 6, 2023 issued notice and passed certain interim directions, The parents of the detenue was directed to produce her before the family court Kollam and the detenue be interviewed by a member of the e committee of the supreme court. Ms Salina Nair has filed a detailed report of her interaction and that detenue was given enough time to express her genuine desire. The detenue who is a major and has completed her MA and that she was staying with her parents out of her own wish and while she has stated that petitioner is an intimate friend, she does not want to marry or live with anyone," the Court noted on Monday.The Court, therefore, refused to entertain the plea."We have no reason to disbelieve the report. We are not inclined to entertain the plea..," the Supreme Court said.However, petitioner's counsel advocate Sriram Parakkat insisted that the Court must observe that the directions earlier given by the Kerala High Court were not in good taste.This prompted the Supreme Court to caution the High Court against misuse of counseling while disposing of the plea.
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