The Supreme Court, giving an important clarification on live-in relations, said that if a man and woman have lived like a husband and wife for a long period of time and have had children, then the judiciary would presume that the two were married.
The clarification was issued by a bench of Justice B S Chauhan and J Chelameswar on a petition filed by lawyer Uday Gupta. In the petition, Gupta had questioned some comprehensive observations made by the Madras High Court on the issue of live-in relationships. Significantly, the Supreme Court said that the children born out of a long live-in relationship will be considered legitimate.
The Madras High Court’s observation that a valid marriage does not necessarily mean that all the customary rights pertaining to the married couple are to be followed and subsequently solemnized, was challenge by Gupta. The High Court’s observation was termed as untenable in law by Gupta’s counsel M R Calla. He apprehended that the remarks could demolish the very institution of marriage. The bench looked through the judgment and said the HC’s observations could not be interpreted as a model for other cases and would be limited to the case in which these were made.
