JAIPUR: The Rajasthan high court has ruled that a live-in relationship between a married person and an unmarried partner is untenable in law.
The bench of Justice Pankaj Bhandari issued the order while hearing a petition filed by a young woman, seeking protection for her “life and liberty” in the face of threats for living with a married man.
Dismissing the petition, the court said, “The prerequisites for a live-in relationship, as held by the apex court in the D Velussamy vs D Patchaiammal case of 2010, is that the couple must hold themselves out to society as being akin to spouses and must be of legal age to marry or qualified to enter into a legal marriage, including being unmarried.” The Punjab and Haryana high court had recently refused to grant protection to two sets of live-in couples allegedly facing threats from the girls’ families on the ground that such a relationship was “morally or socially unacceptable” and, therefore, the state’s intervention could “disturb society”.
One of the couples subsequently approached the Supreme Court, which last week ordered Punjab police to provide security to them.