New Delhi: Widening the scope of Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, the Supreme Court Monday ruled that the provision, which deals with cruelty by a husband or his relatives, would also apply to partners in live-in relationships if an intention to marry is proven.
The top court said “live-in relationships” are today, more or less, a reality — primarily in urban areas, where an increasingly large section of the population resides — and the law must adapt itself to serve those who choose this form.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N Kotiswar Singh said a man in a live-in relationship can be prosecuted for subjecting a woman to cruelty if the relationship is “like marriage”.
Section 498A refers to a woman’s husband or his relatives subjecting her to cruelty.
“Section 498A is held to apply to ‘live-in relationships’ that qualify as ‘relationships like marriage’ with the intent to marry being established as an intrinsic part thereof;
“The ‘live-in relationships’ protected by Section 498A, it is stated for ample clarity, are those that are between two consenting adult individuals. The proposition of law as laid down shall be limited to Section 498A IPC only, and this extended interpretation shall not affect any other provision,” the bench said.
The top court said the safeguards against arrest and other factors shall be strictly applied and no person in a relationship “like marriage” having been accused of committing cruelty against a woman, being either the live-in partner “like marriage” or his relative, shall be arrested without preliminary inquiries.
The apex court said that if a woman is in a domestic setup even before marriage, the protection given to a married woman should be given to them also.
“Cruelty, any which way, does not check at the door, whether the house it enters is that of a married woman or not. Once it enters, its propensity to destroy is aggravated.
“It is held, therefore, that a woman in a ‘relationship like marriage’ shall be protected under Section 498A, giving the word ‘husband’ a purposive interpretation, keeping in view the reformative, corrective and socially beneficial intent of the Section,” the bench said.
The top court said that not a single person goes into a relationship knowing or anticipating that cruelty may be meted out to them.
“When a couple sets out on their journey, it is always, one presumes, with the best of intentions and to bring joyfulness of all forms. With the passage of time, however, some relationships may go down this troublesome path. The law must provide for the same.
“This distinction between ‘married’ and ‘live-in relationship like marriage’, in as much as it relates to the protection envisaged by Section 498A, has no rational nexus with the object of preventing domestic violence and is as such offensive to Article 14 of the Constitution of India,” the bench said.
Observing that the right to choose one’s partner is an intrinsic part of individual autonomy, the bench said choosing to live in a ‘relationship like marriage ‘ attracts at least two kinds of privacy – spatial privacy and associational privacy.
The top court said the law is a living organism, and its life comes more so from experience, and not merely logic.
“Any experience that is undergone by humans particularly has its own way of changing them. The law that we use today is undoubtedly a human endeavour, and so experiences change it too.
“In the earlier days, marriage was perceived as the only method by which two individuals could live together for a lifetime, and doing so without that was considered taboo. Marriage was considered to be sacrosanct; which undoubtedly is a changing phenomenon. Living together, before marriage, is not unheard of or unacceptable anymore,” the bench said.
The judgement came while dealing with a question whether a man who is in a live-in relationship can be prosecuted under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.