Interesting viewpoints have emerged from the above discussion.
However to put things in perspective, the decisions of courts where they seem to give legal sanction and recognition to long term live in relationships need to be understood clearly.
The idea behind the above rulings is that in a country like ours, where a vast number of marriages are not registered, courts tend to legitimize long term live in relationships by giving the benefit of doubt and treating such relationships as marriages for purposes of inheritance, maintenance etc, on the priciple that the intentions of parties are best indicated by their behavior.
In a case where both parties are unmarried and have a live in relationship, legally they don't have to worry much, the moral issues are another matter.
However where one party is married it may create complications, specially if the spouce of such party decides to teach her/him a lesson. It is well settled that in such cases, only an interested or affected party can approach the court. Therefore even if a married person has a live in relationship or even illegally marries another while still married to his/her spouce, he/she is safe if the affected parties decide not to take any action - A La the marriage between Dharmendra and Hema Malini.
But, if the spouce or children of one of the parties in a live in relationship decides to take action, they can vey well create a lot of legal hassles. I see that some comments have come in stating that living together as friends is not a crime unless physical relationship can be proved. I beg to differ. It is well established that adultery cannot be proved by eye witnesses, as everything happens behind closed doors, To prove adultery, it is sufficient to prove inclination to have physical relationship with a person of opposite gender and the opportunity to do so. Therefore where two persons not related to each other are staying together in the same house for a length of time, nothing further need be proved as inclination as well as opportunity is established. The courts wiould not accept that such persons staying together were doing so to meditate together at night! I also wish to clarify here that the inheritence laws for children of live in relationships are one thing, but criminal law does not cease to operate, or absolve any party of penal action under criminal justice, even though the children of such relationships may have claims for inheritence since they are not the ones who are responsible for the state of affairs.
So my advise to all adventurous live in couples or couples contemplating such relationships would be to take heed, and if married, to complete the proceedings for divorce asap. Why live in fear or tension ? Many times that which is legal is not moral, but here both seem to converge.
tsthaker@rediffmail.com
