Law Doesn’t Recognise Live-In Relationships As Marriage: Kerala Court

Kochi: 

The Kerala High Court has held that the law does not recognise live-in relationships as marriage; it considers as a legal union only weddings solemnised according to personal or secular laws.

Therefore, a couple that lives together by virtue of an agreement cannot claim it to be a marriage nor seek a divorce based on that, the high court said. The ruling by a bench of Justices A Muhamed Mustaque and Sophy Thomas came on an interfaith couple’s appeal against a family court order dismissing their plea for divorce on the ground that their marriage was not solemnised under the Special Marriage Act.

The couple, one a Hindu and the other Christian, had been living together since 2006 under a registered agreement and have a 16-year-old child. As they no longer wanted to continue their relationship, they had moved the family court for divorce.