New Delhi: The Chhattisgarh high court has said that a live-in relationship is a “stigma to Indian culture” and an “imported philosophy.”
PTI has reported that a division bench of Justices Goutam Bhaduri and Sanjay S. Agrawal dismissed the appeal of a man seeking custody of a child born from his live-in relationship with a woman. Both the man and the woman are adults, and belong to different faiths.
“Live-in relationship which is followed in certain sect of the society still continues as a stigma in the Indian culture as it is an imported philosophy contrary to the general expectations of Indian tenets,” the high court said in its April 30 order, which was made publicly available recently.
The high court, meanwhile, said that it is crucial to understand and protect women in live-in relationships.
“It is very easy for the married man to walk out of the live-in relationship and in such case the courts cannot shut their eyes to the vulnerable condition of the survivor of such a distressful live-in relationship and children born out of such relationship,” it added.
It also, however, added that “apathy towards matrimonial duties” has possibly given rise to live-in relationships.
“…The close inspection of society shows that the institution of marriage no longer controls the people as it did in the past due to cultural influence of the Western Countries and this significant shifts and apathy towards matrimonial duties has probably given rise to the concept of live-in relationship,” the court said.
The order was passed on April 30 and a copy was made available recently.
In his plea, Abdul Hameed Siddiqui (43) of Dantewada district said that he was in a live-in relationship with a woman from a different faith and she gave birth to a child.
In his plea, Abdul Hameed Siddiqui had written that he married the mother of the child in 2021, without conversion. The report says that on August 10, 2023, Siddiqui found the mother and child missing and moved a habeas corpus petition in the court, after which the woman said that she was living with her parents.
Meanwhile, the Dantewada family court did not grant Siddiqui custody of the child and he moved the high court again.
The woman was his second wife and argued that since the marriage had taken place under the Special Marriage Act, Muslim law allowing more than one wife could not be imposed, thus making the marriage invalid.
This high court is not the only one that has spoken critically of live-in relationships. Under Section 378 of the Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code, those who are in a live-in relationship are required to register it with the authorities.
However in 2021, the Punjab and Haryana high court has granted protection to a live-in couple – after two other benches of the same high court frowned upon the concept.
