The Allahabad high court has made a recent observation that a married man living in a consensual live-in relationship with an adult is not committing an offence, contradicting one of its own previous observations.
A Division Bench of Justice JJ Munir and Justice Tarun Saxena was hearing a plea seeking protection of a live-in couple facing threats from the woman's family.
The court stated that social morality cannot override court's duty to protect citizens' rights and that morality and law have to be kept apart.
This observation is in contrast to a previous statement made by a single judge on March 20, which said that a married individual cannot legally be permitted to enter into a live-in relationship with a third person without first obtaining a divorce from their spouse.
The high court had also made a similar observation in December last year, stating that a married person cannot legally enter into a live-in relationship with a third party without first obtaining a decree of divorce.
