Prayagraj, Mar 29 Is it illegal for married men and women to stay in a live-in relationship?
Two seemingly different positions were taken by the Allahabad High Court in two separate cases recently, but experts are of the view that since the "context" and relief sought by the appellants were not the same, the orders too were different.
A bench comprising Justice JJ Munir and Justice Tarun Saxena, in its order dated March 25, had provided relief to one such couple, saying no offence is made out.
"There is no offence of the kind where a married man staying with an adult woman in a live-in relationship by consent of the other person," the court said and stayed the arrest of the petitioners till further orders.
Days earlier, a single judge bench of Justice Vivek Kumar Singh, while hearing a case pertaining to a live-in relationship, had said that where a married person is in a live-in relationship, it cannot issue any writ or direction for protection to the petitioners, as the live-in relationship was continuing without obtaining a decree of divorce from any competent court.
However, Justice Vivek Kumar Singh said that if the petitioners are disturbed or subjected to any act of violence, they may approach the Senior Superintendent of Police concerned by submitting a detailed application.
Allahabad High Court Bar Association President Rakesh Pande, while talking to PTI, said, "They were two different cases and the relief (provided) was thus different in both these cases."
The facts in both cases appeared "somewhat similar", but the relief sought in the cases was different and therefore the nature of the cases was also not the same, he said.
"The case before the bench of Hon Justice Vivek Singh was of two adults seeking police protection to ensure their live-in status wasn't intruded upon. The court observed in that case that allowing such protection wasn't feasible while directing parties to approach the police which, the learned court felt, would take a call on the request," Pande said.
"In the other case before the double judge bench of Hon. Justice JJ Munir and Hon. Justice Tarun Saxena, an FIR had been registered. There, the petitioners had argued that since both were adults, no case could be made out against them.
"At this, the learned court agreed that yes, there was no case since two consenting adults were in a voluntary relationship. The court thus allowed the protection plea," he added.
In one case, the issue wasn't of any offence as the petitioners hadn't approached the court to talk of any FIR. But in the other case, before the double judge bench, the issue was to decide if there was any offence.
The court thus argued that two consenting adults were free to enter into any live-in relationship as it is not an offence under any law, Pandey said, explaining that IPC sections 494 and 495 ( now replaced by sections 82(2) and 82(3) in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita ) merely prohibit marriage sans divorce.
"So offence would be committed only if married persons remarried sans divorce, which isn't the case if two consenting adults enter into just a live-in," he said.
