High court chief justice for new law on live-in relationships

  Chief Justice of Orissa high court C Nagappan on Thursday said live-in relationships must be recognized by the law and it is important to understand that the society is changing.

"Introducing a new law for live-in relationships is difficult and complex but the legal system must accommodate them," he said at a seminar on 'Live-in relationship and rights of maintenance' at University Law College here.

Citing past judgment of the Supreme Court, justice Nagappan said, "Live-in relationship is not an offence, rather it is a fundamental right of personal liberty. But at the same time we cannot build a safe and secure society on the basis of such relationships. There is no commitment, very less responsibility and very easy to breakup. Live in relationships can be best described as a perfect rehearsal of married life."

He added that there are provisions in Domestic Violence Act for the male partner to take responsibility of the woman but the Supreme Court has laid down some conditions for it, including that the couple must be of legal age to marry, they must make it clear that they are living as spouses and they must be voluntarily cohabited.

High court judge Justice M M Das, cited 'loss of faith', 'suspicion' and growing 'insecurity' among youngsters as main reasons for which more and more people want to be in live-in relationships these days. "Today's youngsters think it's better to be in a live-in relationship than getting divorced after a few days of marriage. Live-in relationship has become a pre-condition before marriage and unfortunately we don't have any legislation to protect the relationship."

Among others director of GITAM, Y Satyanarayan, dean of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Intellectual Property Law, K Bibhuti, vice chancellor of Utkal University P K Sahoo and principal of University Law College A K Azad were present on the occasion. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhubaneswar/High-court-chief-justice-for-new-law-on-live-in-relationships/articleshow/20100960.cms