Can A Live-In Relationship Lead To Legal Recognition Or Marriage Rights?

Recent decades have witnessed sweeping changes in India’s legal environment governing relationships. It is no longer a straitjacketed affair; thanks to changing societal attitudes and judicial interpretations towards more contemporary pursuits associated with personal relationships. While marriage continues to be at the core of family law in India, live-in relationships gradually have begun to find their feet within the precincts of legal sanction.

Live-In Relationships: About

• A live-in relationship is an arrangement in which two individuals live together in a house or under one roof as a couple but without formal marriage registration. Such relationships are prevalent in many parts of the world, yet in several Indian societies, they are somewhat viewed through a narrow lens owing to the cultural importance given to the institution of marriage.
• In India, the legal system does not explicitly recognize cohabitation. However, with changing times, courts too have started interpreting laws with changing social conditions. Most often, such persons will have to approach the law to spell out their rights concerning domestic violence or property issues perpetrated on them in such domestic arrangements or about child custody.

Does a Live-In Relationship Lead to Marriage Rights?

The courts have, to some extent, recognized live-in relationships, but they have yet to treat them as equivalent to marriages or to provide live-in partners the same legal rights associated with the married couple. Marriage confers glossed rights and obligations that are often absent in a live-in relationship, including inheritance and property laws, tax benefits, as well as spousal maintenance or support in the event of divorce.

Inheritance and Succession Rights

• One of the major rights that purely defines a married relationship in India is inheritance and succession rights. A married individual, on the one hand, has an automatic right to inherit the property of the spouse in his/her death and vice versa. However, live-in partners do not get any automatic succession rights. 
• In case, if one of the partners in the live-in relationship dies intestate, the surviving partner will not have any right to claim the property of the deceased partner, except when the deceased partner has explicitly mentioned it in a will.
• However, the surviving partner may be allow to stake his or her claim to property left by a decease live-in partner by a court if it has been shown that the parties had a long-term relationship and were usually financially dependent on the decease, but then this does not come about frequently and relies entirely on the situation.

Maintenance and Alimony Rights

• A woman in a live-in relationship may be eligible for maintenance just like a divorced spouse if she establishes that her relationship is of a “domestic nature.” 
• But, maintenance in live-in relationships is not guarantee like it is in marriages. It often depends on such factors as the duration of the relationship, the economic dependency of the woman, and the circumstances of the case.

Child Custody and Support

• Couples staying together with kids tend to find child custody and maintenance rights often. Courts take a progressive stance in this regard by ensuring child rights. 
• The Supreme Court’s recent ruling in “K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India,” which emphasized the value of protecting the rights of children born out of such partnerships, implicitly supported live-in relationships by defending the right to privacy. 
• Thus, it has been declare by the courts that the status of the parents, whether marry or in a live-in relationship, does not affect the right of any child to claim maintenance or care.

What is the Possibility of Legal Reform in Live-In Relationships Leading to Lead to Marriage Rights?

• Some judicial progress has been make regarding, in fact, the status of live-in relationships on an equal footing with marriages, but it remains a matter of controversy. 
• For a long time, India has maintained a very conservative approach to relationships, particularly when it comes to their personal law. Live-in relationships pose a challenge to the traditional marriage definition as that which has to be consummate with some formal registration, approval from the family, and religious sanction.
• The legalization of same-sex marriage in India has added further complexity to the issue of live-in relationships, starting with the Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India (2018) case. With marriage legally recognized in non-marital relationships, it could be extend more broadly for same-sex couples.

The live-in relationship between an Indian couple does not carry all the rights and privileges that married couples enjoy. A strong legal status for such relationships is emerging when courts tend to recognize the existence and rights of individuals in live-in relationships. However, legal reforms or statutory recognition are the prerequisites for live-in relationships to ultimately confer marriage rights. Until such reforms are enact, people living with someone as a spouse must navigate an unfinish legal system that is not fully appreciative of their status. A shift in perception has happened, but it is still too early to tell whether the Indian legal system will substantiate this alternative to marriage.

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