How to Get Police Protection as a Couple Who Married by Choice in Delhi

What couple protection in Delhi actually means

Couple protection in Delhi means the police are told, either by their own senior officers or by the High Court, to make sure that no one harms, confines or forcibly separates a married adult couple. It is not a favour. The right to marry a person of your choice is part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution, and the Supreme Court has said so repeatedly: in Lata Singh v. State of U.P. (2006), in Shafin Jahan v. Asokan (2018), and in Shakti Vahini v. Union of India (2018), where it laid down preventive, remedial and punitive steps against honour crimes.

In practice, protection takes a few concrete forms. The SHO is directed to assess the threat. A beat officer is assigned and his mobile number is given to the couple. The family is warned that any interference will lead to criminal action. Where the threat is serious, police may post a personal security officer for a period, or the couple may be offered a place in a safe house.

What protection does not do is decide whether your marriage is valid, settle property disputes with your parents, or stop a genuine criminal case. The court's concern on a protection petition is narrow: two adults are in fear, and the State must keep them safe.

The law behind inter caste marriage protection

Who can ask for protection, and who should get advice first

Any couple where both people are adults can ask. That covers a Hindu couple from different castes, an inter faith couple, a couple who married in an Arya Samaj mandir or a gurdwara, a couple who married in court under the Special Marriage Act, and a couple who are not yet married but live together. Courts in Delhi have granted protection to live-in couples as well, because the right being protected is safety of life, not the status of the relationship.

Same-sex couples cannot marry under Indian law after Supriyo Chakraborty v. Union of India (2023), but the Supreme Court made clear that they must not face harassment or violence for their relationship, and the Delhi High Court has directed police protection in such cases. The petition is framed around threats to life and liberty, not marriage.

Some situations need careful advice before anything is filed. If either of you is below the legal age, the police will treat the case as kidnapping of a minor or worse, and a protection petition will not help; it may expose you to arrest. If one of you is still legally married to someone else, the court will usually protect life but will not endorse the second marriage, and the papers must be drafted honestly. If there is a pending criminal case against either of you, it has to be disclosed.

First stop: the SHO, the DCP and the special cell

Most couples assume the High Court is the first step. It is not, and the court will usually ask whether you approached the police. Start with a written complaint to the SHO of the police station where you now live, with a copy to the DCP of that police district. Delhi has a DCP for each police district, and under a standard operating procedure the Delhi Government issued in 2021 after Shakti Vahini, the DCP heads the special cell for couples facing threats from families or community.

Under that procedure, the DCP is expected to inquire into the threat, have an FIR registered against those making it where the facts support one, arrange security for the couple where needed, and inform the district magistrate if a safe house is required. A safe house was set up in North Delhi for this purpose. Staying in it is your choice. Couples who decline are to be protected where they live, depending on the threat assessed. The women's helpline 181 was also opened to such couples for advice.

Write the complaint plainly. Give both your full names, ages, dates of birth, the date and place of marriage, your current address, the names and addresses of the people threatening you, what exactly was said or done and when, and the phone numbers the threats came from. Attach age proof and the marriage certificate. Send it by email to the official addresses of the police station and the DCP office, and also hand a copy at the station and take a receiving stamp. If you are refused a receiving, note the time, the officer's name and send it by speed post the same day.

If the police will not register an FIR for the threats, the route is set out in our guide on what to do when Delhi Police refuse to register your FIR. If the threats were made from another State, an e-FIR or zero FIR can still be lodged in Delhi; see zero FIR and e-FIR under the BNSS.

Step by step: how to get protection in Delhi

This is the order that usually works fastest. If someone is physically at your door, skip straight to step 2 and dial 112.

1. Secure your papers and phones

   Make copies of your age proof, marriage certificate, photographs of the ceremony and screenshots of threats, and keep them with a trusted friend and in your email. If your phone is on a family plan or linked to a parent's Google or iCloud account, change the passwords and switch off location sharing.

2. Call 112 if there is immediate danger

   A call to 112 creates a record and brings a PCR van. Ask for the call reference and note the time. Tell the officers you are married adults and that you fear your families.

3. Give a written complaint to the SHO and the DCP

   Send the complaint described above by email and by hand. Ask for a DD entry number or a diary number. Mention that you are seeking help under the Shakti Vahini guidelines and the special cell procedure.

4. Follow up with the DCP office

   If nothing happens within two or three days, visit the DCP office with a copy and ask for the officer handling couples' complaints. Many cases are resolved here, with the SHO calling the families and warning them.

5. File a protection writ in the Delhi High Court

   If the police do not act, or the threat is serious, file a writ petition (criminal) under Article 226. It attaches your complaints and asks the court to direct the police to protect you. Urgent listing can be sought where the threat is immediate.

6. Attend the hearing, usually by video

   The State is represented by its counsel, who takes instructions from the police. The court may speak to both of you, check your ages and pass directions the same day.

7. Keep the order with you and stay in touch with the beat officer

   Save the beat officer's number, keep a copy of the order on your phone, and report every new threat in writing. A breach can be brought back before the court.

When the threat comes from the village, not from Delhi

A very common pattern in Delhi is a couple from Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan or Bihar who have come to the city to work or study, married quietly, and now live in a rented room in Uttam Nagar, Laxmi Nagar or Mukherjee Nagar. The families are hundreds of kilometres away, but the threats arrive by phone, through relatives in Delhi, or through people who turn up asking the landlord questions. This is where inter caste marriage protection becomes urgent, because the family often already knows roughly where the couple stays.

The Delhi Police can protect you in Delhi. They cannot protect you in Rohtak or Meerut. If you plan to return to your home State even briefly, for a job, a court date or to collect belongings, the police of that State need to be approached too, and if they fail, the High Court of that State. Many couples get a Delhi order and then walk into danger by visiting home for a family function on a promise that all is forgiven.

Keep every voice note, message and call log. Threats sent through a cousin or a family friend are still threats. If a panchayat or community meeting has passed a decision against your marriage, find out the date, place and names if you safely can. Shakti Vahini treats such gatherings as unlawful, and that detail strengthens both the police complaint and the petition.

When the family files a kidnapping case or a habeas corpus

The most common counter-move is a complaint by the girl's father that his daughter has been kidnapped or lured away. Police in the home district may register an FIR for kidnapping under Section 87 BNS (old Section 366 IPC) and come looking for the husband. If the woman is an adult and left of her own will, this case cannot stand, but it can still lead to the husband's arrest if no one acts quickly.

The answer is to put the woman's own version on record early. She can give a statement to the police and, with more weight, before a magistrate under Section 183 BNSS (old Section 164 CrPC), saying she is an adult, married by choice and was not taken by force. Many protection petitions in the Delhi High Court also ask the court to record that the woman is an adult who married voluntarily, which helps the IO of the other State close the kidnapping case. Where the FIR still survives, it can be challenged separately; our page on quashing an FIR in the Delhi High Court explains that route, and if the FIR was registered in Haryana or Uttar Pradesh, the quashing petition generally goes to that State's High Court.

Families also file habeas corpus petitions claiming their daughter is being held illegally. The court will have her produced, often speak to her alone in chambers, and once satisfied that she is an adult acting freely, close the petition and leave her free to go with her husband. Our guide on what habeas corpus is and when it is used explains how these hearings run, and the reverse situation, where the wife has been taken back home by force and the husband needs her produced, is covered on our habeas corpus petition page.

Advocate B.K. Singh's practical advice in these cases is to get the woman's statement recorded before the family's complaint gathers pace. Once the IO of another State has her statement under Section 183 BNSS saying she married willingly, the kidnapping story usually collapses on its own, and the husband is far less likely to be picked up on a weekend when no court is sitting.

Which court hears a protection petition, and why

The Delhi High Court can hear the petition if the couple lives in Delhi, the threat is being carried out in Delhi, or the relief sought is against the Delhi Police. That covers most couples who have moved to the city. Article 226(2) allows a High Court to hear a writ where any part of the cause of action arises within its territory, so threats received in Delhi from family members elsewhere are enough to bring the petition here.

If you live in Gurugram or Faridabad, protection is a matter for the Haryana Police and the Punjab and Haryana High Court. If you live in Noida or Ghaziabad, it is for the Uttar Pradesh Police and the Allahabad High Court. The Delhi High Court will not direct the Haryana or Uttar Pradesh police in the ordinary course. A couple who lives in Delhi but whose families are in Haryana can still get a Delhi order, but that order binds the Delhi Police.

What happens in the Delhi High Court

The petition is filed online through the court's e-filing system. It sets out who you are, your ages, the marriage, the threats with dates, the complaints you made and the police response, and asks for directions to the SHO and DCP to protect your life and liberty. Both of you sign affidavits. Annexures include age proof, the marriage certificate, photographs and copies of the complaints with proof of delivery. If the matter is urgent, an urgent listing request explains why; our guide on urgent listing and mentioning in the Delhi High Court covers that procedure.

On the first date, counsel for the State appears on advance notice, usually with instructions from the SHO. Many hearings take place over video, which suits couples who do not want to be seen at the court complex; see how virtual hearings work in the Delhi High Court. The judge may ask each of you a few questions directly to confirm your ages and that you married willingly.

A typical order directs the SHO and the beat officer to assess the threat, to give the couple the beat officer's mobile number, to respond at once to any call from them, and to take action in accordance with law against anyone who threatens or harms them. It may record that the petitioners are adults who married of their own will. Where the threat is serious, the court may direct the DCP to consider a personal security officer or a place in the safe house. The petition is often disposed of with these directions on the first or second date.

The court does not declare the marriage valid on a protection petition, and it will not pass orders against parents beyond directing the police. If your family later files a case challenging the marriage, that is a separate matter before the family court.

Time and cost at each stage

Papers to collect before you go to the police or the court

Love marriage threat: what usually goes wrong

The first mistake is relying on a marriage certificate that will not hold up. Some certificates issued by marriage bureaus or unregistered bodies have been found to be paper only, with no actual ceremony. If the certificate is weak, the family will attack it and the court may doubt your whole account. A proper ceremony with witnesses, followed by registration, avoids this.

The second is an age document problem. If school records and Aadhaar show different dates of birth, the family will rely on whichever makes the girl younger. Find out early what each document says and explain any difference honestly in the complaint and petition. Never alter a document. That turns a protection case into a forgery case.

The third is going back. Couples are often invited home with promises of a proper wedding or a talk with the elders. Some end with the woman kept at home and the man assaulted. If you choose to meet family, do it in a public place in Delhi, with a friend present and the beat officer informed.

The fourth is social media. Posting wedding photos with location tags, or reels showing your new neighbourhood, tells everyone where you are. Keep your accounts private for some months.

The fifth is silence after the order. A protection order is only as good as the follow-up. If a threat comes after the order, report it in writing the same day, mention the order and the case number, and keep the acknowledgement. When Advocate B.K. Singh's office prepares these petitions, the couple is given a one-page note with the case number, the order date, the beat officer's name and the DCP office email, so that either of them can send a complaint from their phone in two minutes, even at night.

How long protection lasts and what to do if it is breached

A protection order does not usually carry an end date, but the police will review the threat over time. A personal security officer, where one is given, is often withdrawn after a period if no further incidents are reported. Beat-level monitoring tends to fade into routine. If the threat revives, you can approach the DCP again, and if that fails, apply to the court.

If someone breaches the order, there are three tracks. File a fresh complaint and press for an FIR for the threat or attack itself. Inform the court through an application in the disposed petition or a fresh petition, depending on how the order was framed. And where police officers ignored a clear direction, a contempt petition is possible, though it is a serious step and the court expects a specific breach, not general dissatisfaction.

If the police themselves are not acting on your complaints at all, the route for a direction against police inaction is set out on our page on writs against police inaction.

Registering your marriage without walking into danger

Registration is strong proof and you should do it, but timing matters. A Hindu couple who has already had a ceremony can register under the Hindu Marriage Act through the Delhi Government's online process and an appearance before the Sub-Divisional Magistrate's office acting as Registrar. Delhi made registration of marriages compulsory by an order in 2014. This route does not involve a public notice period, so it is often the safer first step.

A couple of different religions who do not wish to convert usually marries under the Special Marriage Act. That needs a notice to the Marriage Officer of a district where at least one of you has lived for 30 days before the notice. The notice is put up for objections for 30 days before the marriage can be solemnised. Families sometimes learn of the marriage this way, so many couples secure a police complaint or a protection order before or while the notice is pending. If the marriage is not solemnised within three months of the notice, a fresh notice is needed.

If you are the parent or a relative

Parents often come to us angry and hurt, convinced their daughter has been misled. That is understandable. But once she is an adult, the law gives her the final word on whom she marries. A missing person report is fair if you genuinely do not know where she is. A kidnapping complaint against a man she married willingly is not, and it will usually fail once she speaks.

If you want to see your child, the safest route is a meeting arranged through the police or through counsel, in a neutral place. Courts will not order an adult to return home. Threatening the couple, sending relatives to their address or pressuring the landlord exposes the family to FIRs under the BNS and to the High Court's displeasure. Families who wait out the first year often find the relationship repaired over time.

What to do this week

Make two sets of copies of your age proof, marriage certificate and threat screenshots, and keep one with someone you trust outside both families. Change the passwords on your phones and email, and turn off location sharing with family members.

Write a complaint to the SHO and the DCP of your police district, send it by email and by hand, and keep the acknowledgement. If you get no response in two or three days, visit the DCP office. If the threat is serious or the police are not responding, prepare a protection writ for the Delhi High Court; our couple protection service page explains what that petition asks for and how we prepare it. If money is the obstacle, free legal aid is available; see how to get free legal aid for a Delhi High Court case.

If a kidnapping complaint or missing person report has already been filed, the woman's statement should be recorded as soon as possible. Do not visit your home town until you know the status of that complaint.

If you want someone to read your papers and tell you which step fits your situation, or want updates on the law on couple protection, contact Advocate B.K. Singh.