What If Your Spouse Goes And Stays In Live In Relationship

Indian society shied away from the idea of cohabitation for a very long time. In earlier Indian society, living together prior to marriage was considered a crime. Most significantly, “One man, one wife” is regarded by the Hindu Dharma as the most sacred type of matrimony. However, as mental development progresses, people become more receptive to some resisting behaviours in subsequent generations. 

For instance, cohabitation is the decision made by two people to live together either permanently or for a longer period of time while continuing to have emotional and/or sexual relationships. The most common usage of the phrase is to allude to single couples.

Live-In Relationship: About

• The concept of a live-in partnership emerged from people’s expanded perspectives as they began to yearn for a commitment-free relationship.
• The definition of a living relationship is one in which there are no expectations among the couple and they cohabit. Nevertheless, Indian law does not provide a definition for the idea. It is primarily a westernized idea that has very little application to Indian customs.
• In one case, the Allahabad High Court decided that, if both parties so choose, a woman who is around 21 years old and a major has the right to cohabitate irrespective of whether they happen to be married or not, with another man. The Supreme Court went on to say that if a man and a woman live together for an extended length of time, they would be viewed as a married couple and their child would be regarded as legitimate.

Facts of the Case

• In the case of S Rajadurai v State and Anr, a petition challenging the validity of extramarital experiences in a live-in relationship was the main crux in this case. The court made this statement while considering a motion filed by a married man to suppress a rape complaint that his live-in partner, who is married to someone else, filed in October, 2022. The woman claimed that the man had raped her under false pretences of marriage.

Issues of the Case

• Is it illegal if your spouse is in a live-in relationship with another individual?

Judgment of the Case

• The observations were made by the court in the process of dismissing a rape case involving two people who were married to their respective wives but were living together in a live-in relationship.
• The Delhi High Court stated that judges cannot force their morals on people if their choices are neither unlawful nor offensive, noting that a live-in relationship between two consenting married people has not been criminalized or rendered illegal.
• The court further noted that judges, as individuals, may have various ideas of morality, which cannot be forced on any party, and that it would be harmful to criminalize conduct that has not been prohibited by legislation.
• Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma also stated that judges cannot cast moral judgments against individuals based solely on their gender and that the courts must apply the law exactly as written without adding morality.

Living with someone other than one’s spouse while married can be seen as a violation of marital duties and have consequences, such as making the adulterous spouse ineligible for support and serving as a basis for divorce. A live-in relationship during marriage is nevertheless viewed as morally or ethically questionable by certain people or groups.

The enactment of the law of cohabitation among married people is an important move toward acknowledging individuals’ independence and responsibility when it pertains to personal life choices. It reaffirms the rights of adults to select where they live and reiterates the notion that the state ought not to impose its moral beliefs on consenting parties. 

Society comes one step closer to accomplishing the ideals of equal treatment, diversity, and freedom for everyone when it welcomes diversity in relationships.

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