Prayagraj (UP), Dec 19 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has ruled that a married person cannot legally enter into a live-in relationship with a third party without first obtaining a decree of divorce.
With
this observation, the court dismissed a writ petition seeking protection filed by a couple in a live-in relationship.
Justice Vivek Kumar Singh observed that the freedom of personal liberty is not absolute and cannot infringe upon the statutory rights of an existing spouse.
The petitioners had approached the court with a prayer that both petitioners are major and living together as husband and wife and they have apprehension of a life threat from the respondent.
On the other hand, the state counsel opposed the prayer made by the petitioners and submitted that the act of the petitioners is illegal as petitioner no. 1 is already married to one Dinesh Kumar and has not obtained a decree of divorce.
The court observed in its judgment on Tuesday, "No one has the right to interfere in the personal liberty of the two adults, not even the parents of two adults can interfere in their relationship, but the Right to Freedom or Right to Personal Liberty is not absolute or unfettered: it is qualified by some restrictions also. The freedom of one person extincts where the statutory right of another person starts."
A spouse has the statutory right to enjoy the company of his or her counterpart and he/she cannot be deprived of that right for the sake of personal liberty and no such protection can be granted to infringe statutory right of the other spouse, the court said, adding hence, the freedom of one person cannot encroach or overweigh the legal right of another person.
"If the petitioners are already married and have their spouse alive, he/she cannot be legally permitted to enter into a live-in relationship with a third person without seeking divorce from the earlier spouse," the court said.
With the above observation, the court said that it is not inclined to issue any writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus for protection to the petitioners who are in a live-in relationship without obtaining a decree of divorce from a competent court. PTI COR RAJ KSS
KSS
