PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad high court has ruled that a married woman moving in with another man without divorcing her spouse cannot claim to be in a live-in relationship and seek legal sanctity later.
Dismissing a writ petition filed by one Asha Devi and Suraj Kumar, the division bench of Justices Surya Prakash Kesarwani and Dr Yogendra Kumar Srivastava held that any such couple isn’t entitled to protection from the court simply on the ground that they are consenting adults living with each other.
The petitioners had argued that although not legally married, they had been living together as husband and wife, and thus nobody should have the right to interfere in their relationship.
During the court proceedings, the petition was opposed by the state counsel on the ground that Asha Devi started living in with Suraj Kumar even as she was legally married to his client, Mahesh Chandra. This constitutes an offence under sections 494 (marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife) and 495 (concealment of former marriage from person with whom subsequent marriage is contracted) of the IPC, the counsel said.
After hearing both sides, the court said: “Such a relationship does not fall within the phrase ‘live-in relationship’ or ‘relationship in the nature of marriage’...The writ petition has been filed by the petitioners for protection from interference by others in their living as husband and wife. If protection, as prayed for, is granted, it may amount to granting protection against commission of offences under sections 494/495 of the IPC.”
According to the court, a writ of mandamus (judicial remedy in the form of an order) could not be issued contrary to law or to defeat a statutory provision, including the penal code. “The petitioners do not have a legally protected and judicially enforceable subsisting right to ask for mandamus,” the court ruled on December 1.