A married Indian couple has won the right to stay in Australia, for now, after seeking refugee status claiming they might be killed if they returned to India as they are from different castes. A court in Canberra ruled in favour of the couple who hail from Punjab after their plea for refugee status was rejected by Australian immigration and refugee authorities.

However, there is still a chance of them getting deported, as the authorities have appealed against the ruling in a higher court. The couple, Sikh and from a backward Hindu caste, secretly married in 2007 and lived separately in India after the man’s parents refused to accept the marriage. In 2008, the couple fled to Australia and applied for a protection visa to Australia’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship but was turned down.