Planning to move in with your partner? Well, living with your partner might look all lovey-dovey, but its legal status is still not recognised. It seems too romantic and glossed up when one thinks of making breakfasts together or hosting friends for a dinner or even having some "us" time without the binding of a formal set-up. But the reality is far from our set of imaginations.
HerZindagi spoke to a practising lawyer, Ankur Bali, to understand how Indian law looks at these relationships and the legal protection that it might or might not bring with the domain.
"To sum up live in relation amongst two partners who enjoy individual freedom and live in a shared household without being married to each other and since no act defines a live-in relationship, its legal status is unrecognised. However, with changing social set up, new laws are being enacted i.e. Domestic Violence Act, 2005 and even the Hon'ble Apex Courts as well as Hon'ble High Courts have time and again reiterated that live-in relationship can be immoral yet not illegal in India."
And though many, especially women, would like to believe that the law is at least on their side, this is not essentially the case. The protection has its own 'terms and conditions apply' when it comes to implementing the related section/s of the IPC. Though the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 has tried to ensure some cover for the women involved, there are still many vulnerable gaps that require strong legislation in place.
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As Ankur Bali opines, "Such relationship may sustain for a long time and can result in a pattern of dependency and vulnerability and increase in the number of such relationships call for adequate and effective protection especially to the woman and children born out of that live-in relationship. The legislature, of course, cannot promote pre-marital sex, though at times, such relationships are intensively personal and people may express their opinion, for and against. Thus the Parliament has to ponder over these issues and bring in proper legislation or make adequate and much-needed amendments to the law in force for the protection of rights of women as well as of the children born out of such relationships are protected though such relationship might not be a relationship in the nature of marriage."
However, not everything seems so gloomy here. Women still have something to look forward to especially when it comes to recent judgments by the honourable courts. In a caseBadri Prasad vs. Dy. Director of Consolidation, 1978,the Supreme Court, for the first time ever, recognised a 50-year old live-in relationship.
In another case title,Tulsa & Ors vs. Durghatiya & Ors, 2008,the Apex Court intervened and provided legal rights to the offsprings born out of the relationship of two live-in partners. The court ruled that such a child would be treated as a legitimate being, giving him an equal claim in ancestral as well as self-bought properties.
Furthermore, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act also provides a woman with the right to claim alimony if she is unable to provide for herself and any children born out of the said relationship.
The Supreme Court of India has givenfive categories where the concept of live-in relationships can be considered legal in the court's eye.
- Relationship between an unmarried man and woman.
- When a married man is aware about his partners' marriage and is still in a relationship with her.
- When an unmarried woman is aware about her partners' marriage and is still in a relationship with him.
- Relationship between same sex partners.
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