{"id":62223,"date":"2025-12-20T18:55:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T13:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=62223"},"modified":"2025-12-23T17:41:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T12:11:32","slug":"live-in-relationship-not-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/20-12-2025\/live-in-relationship-not-illegal","title":{"rendered":"Live in Relationship Not Illegal: Allahabad High Court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS1\/ Social Issue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Allahabad High Court categorically held that<strong> live-in relationships are not illegal <\/strong>and that consenting adults have the <strong>constitutional right to live together with dignity and safety, irrespective of marital status.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Observations of the Allahabad High Court<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Live-in relationship is not an offence: <\/strong>Living together without marriage does not violate any law in India if both partners are adults and give free consent.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Right to life and personal liberty:<\/strong> The Court emphasized that Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees the right to life, dignity, and personal freedom to all individuals, including those in live-in relationships.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>State\u2019s duty to protect: <\/strong>Once adults choose to live together, the State is duty-bound to ensure their safety, even against threats from family or society.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Social Morality vs Constitutional Morality:<\/strong> The Court clearly prioritised constitutional morality over social morality.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Evidentiary Presumption of Marriage:<\/strong> The Court referred to Section 114 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, and Section 119(1) of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>These provisions state that if a man and woman cohabit for a significant period in the nature of husband and wife, the law may presume them to be married.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img data-dominant-color=\"d7d3cb\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"559\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/12\/image-113-1024x559.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"not-transparent wp-image-62224\" style=\"--dominant-color: #d7d3cb; aspect-ratio:1.8318737860769414;width:650px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/12\/image-113-1024x559.png 1024w, https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/12\/image-113-300x164.png 300w, https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/12\/image-113-768x419.png 768w, https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/12\/image-113-1536x838.png 1536w, https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/12\/image-113.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Supreme Court Judgments on Live-in Relationships<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Tulsa v. Durghatiya (2008): <\/strong>Children born from prolonged live-in relationships cannot be treated as illegitimate.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ensures inheritance and dignity of children.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>D. Velusamy v. D. Patchaiammal (2010):<\/strong> The Court clarified the concept of \u201crelationship in the nature of marriage\u201d under the Domestic Violence Act.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Conditions laid down like a couple must hold themselves out as husband and wife, must be of legal age &amp; must be otherwise qualified to marry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I<strong>ndra Sarma v. V.K.V. Sarma (2013): <\/strong>Recognised that live-in relationships may be morally debated, but courts must deal with social realities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Shafin Jahan v. Asokan K.M. (2018):<\/strong> The Court held that the right to marry a person of one\u2019s choice is an integral part of Article 21.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: TOI<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News<\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Allahabad High Court categorically held that live-in relationships are not illegal and that consenting adults have the constitutional right to live together with dignity and safety, irrespective of marital status.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Observations of the Allahabad High Court<\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Live-in relationship is not an offence: Living together without marriage does not violate any law in India if both partners are adults and give free consent.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Right to life and personal liberty: The Court emphasized that Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees the right to life, dignity, and personal freedom to all individuals, including those in live-in relationships.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">State\u2019s duty to protect: Once adults choose to live together, the State is duty-bound to ensure their safety, even against threats from family or society.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Social Morality vs Constitutional Morality: The Court clearly prioritised constitutional morality over social morality.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/20-12-2025\/live-in-relationship-not-illegal\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62223"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62241,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62223\/revisions\/62241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}