Live-in despite being married? High Court gave two different opinions in 5 days, a big legal battle broke out on the relationship between husband and wife.

The recent observations of the Allahabad High Court have sparked a new legal debate regarding live-in relationships between married persons. Within just 5 days, the court has given two such opinions on the same subject, which appear to be completely opposite to each other. During the hearing of a case on March 25, the court said that if a married man is living in a consensual relationship with an adult woman, then it cannot be considered a crime in itself. This stance of the court is completely different from the previous decisions, which many experts are seeing as a big ‘U-turn’.

What is the latest decision of the court?

This important comment was made by the division bench of Justice JJ Munir and Justice Tarun Saxena while hearing the petition of a live-in couple. The couple had sought protection due to threats from the woman’s family. During the hearing, the court clearly said that law and social morality are two different things and they should not be mixed. According to the report of ‘Hindustan Times’, the High Court made it clear that if an act has not been declared a crime in law, then the court cannot step back from protecting the rights of citizens on the basis of mere social perceptions.

What was the stand of the court 5 days ago?

Interestingly, this new comment by the court appears to stand in contradiction to its own previous decisions. Just 5 days ago, on March 20, a single bench had taken a completely different stand in another case. At that time Justice Vivek Kumar Singh had said that no married person can live in a live-in relationship with a third person while his spouse is alive and without obtaining divorce. During that time, the court had rejected the protection petition of a couple on the grounds that personal freedom is not unlimited.

Reference to rights in old comments

In earlier decisions, the Court had argued that personal freedom cannot infringe on the legal or statutory rights of another person. The court had then also made it clear that a spouse has the legal right to live with his or her spouse, which cannot be taken away because of any other illicit relationship. Earlier in December also, Allahabad High Court had said something similar that forming another relationship without legal divorce is not right and the rights of the second spouse cannot be ignored in this.

Legal confusion and demand for clear guidelines

These contradictory comments of the High Court have once again raised the big question that where should the line be drawn between personal freedom and marital obligations? Legal experts believe that different stances of different benches may create confusion among the public and lawyers. At present, these two different paths of the Allahabad High Court have indicated that in future, clear guidelines may be required by the Supreme Court or a larger bench on this sensitive issue.