Mahadeep Singh Jamwal
India is a developing country, where people are also transforming to the modern era. In India, there are various traditions and customs being followed and also the Indians are very much protective as well as possessive about their traditions and customs. There have been dynamic changes that took place in the customs & traditions along with acceptance towards modernization like widow remarriage, inter-caste marriage etc. Many practices and customs such as: abolition of sati system, abolition of child marriage has been done away. Similarly adultery (offence u/s 497 IPC) is no more an offence under Criminal law. With these drastic changes in our society, there is one more concept of relation our new generation is adopting and that is ‘Live-in-Relationship’.
A live-in relationship is an arrangement when two people involved in a sexual relationship as partners for a long term or permanently, decide to live together without marriage. The concept of marriage is defined under law or under personal laws like Hindu Marriage Act, 1955; Muslim Personal laws etc but there are no such specified laws regarding live-in relationship. Marriage is a sacramental institution in our society. Unlike marriage, live-in relationships are highly criticized because these two people live under the same roof that resembles marriage but not married. In Canada, the practice of live-in relationship is recognized as Common-Law relationship. In the regions of UAE, and Dubai, living together with someone you are not married to, is an offence against Sharia Law. In England and Wales, it is legal for a couple to have a sexual relationship, as long as they are both 16 and over and they both consent. Live-in relation of a man with a woman has been the focus of civilized societies and legal entities in India. The reason why people are choosing to live in a relationship is remarked by some as to check their compatibility with each other before getting legally married. This is an unacceptable reason as for how long this compatibility test will prolong and with how many people to live in as partners before arriving at a decision to have a nuptial knot with one man for the whole period of life and in Hindu mythology for ‘Saat Janam’. We can keep this practice in the parameters of the prostitution. It is simply taken as a shameful relation by civilized society. Indian conventional society finds it difficult to accept this relation. With time many incidents have been reported and seen where partners in live-in relationships or a child born out of such relationship have remained vulnerable for the very simple reason that such relationships have been kept outside the realm of law. For the past sometime, we come across some ghastly murders that have horrified the responsible parents’ and civilized society and these murders are connected to the relations coined as “Living-in-Relationship”. We have some examples like that of Shraddha Walker murdered in 2022 by Aaftab Amin Poonawala and her body chopped into 35 pieces, had been living in a relationship since 2018, Nikki Yadav, strangulated to death and body dumped in refrigerator, was in a live-in relationship, in the Palghar district of Maharashtra, a man allegedly killed his live-in partner and stuffed her body in a mattress, Megha Torvi was allegedly murdered by his live-in partner Hardik Shah, and hid the body in a bed box, Saraswati Vaidya, murdered who was in a live-in relationship with Manoj Sahani, for the last three years, and many more cases. One thing common we find is that all the victims were unmarried and their living-in-relationship was well within the knowledge of their parents. The living in relation of unmarried girls (may be an adult) with a man and indulging in all sexual activities like married couple is not acceptable in Hindu mythology and civilized society as there is no social claim or position attached with a live-in relationship unlike a marriage where families are involved and individuals are bound with social responsibilities. In the context of live-in relationships and its societal acceptance, the Supreme Court held that a living relationship comes within the ambit of right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The Supreme Court gave the judgment that Live-in relationship may be immoral in the society due to religious and conservative nature however it is not illegal. In India marriage is given importance over live-in relationships. But the biggest disadvantage of live-in relationships is the lack of support from families and friends. It causes the couple a lot of mental agonies and sometimes is also the reason for the downfall of their relationship and culminating in serious crime. It is not compulsory for couples who are living in a relationship that they have to marry each other. Unmarried couples while in live-in relation don’t have the same legal protection as married couples; and they also have no legal responsibility for each other in the event of a breakup. This means the rules that apply in a divorce, don’t apply if you’re not married. Legally, living-in-relation couples have no financial responsibility to one another if they separate. If their relationship ends they have no legal responsibility to provide a former partner with financial support. So to say, such relations are just to satisfy the sexual lust, nothing more than that and no protection of any kind especially to female gender after the live-in relations are over. Those with the psyche of changing sexual partners like dresses take to the recourse of eliminating the one by committing their murders as in most cases; the female partner hesitates to free their live-in partner for fear of acceptance in the society. True relations do not matter in live-in relations, as friendship and such relationships will come and go, and where toxic situations arise, the crime takes its space. These live-in relations are more visible in metropolitan cities as these are the business hubs where western ideas and lifestyles are readily accepted.