HC: Adult male under 21 can have a live-in relationship

HC: Adult male under 21 can have a live-in relationship

Orders Police To Grant Protection To The Couple

Ajay.Sura@timesgroup.com

Chandigarh:21.12.2021

An adult man under the legally marriageable age of 21 can live like a couple outside wedlock with a consenting woman 18 years or above, the Punjab and Haryana high court said last week. The HC’s remarks were in line with a Supreme Court order in May 2018 that an adult couple can live together without marriage.

The HC made the observation while hearing a plea for protection by a couple in a live-in relationship from Punjab’s Gurdaspur district. Both are above 18 years—the age a woman attains adulthood and can get married. Men also lawfully become adults at18, but cannot marry before 21 in accordance with the Hindu Marriage Act.

The couple approached the HC for protection, alleging threats from their families over their relationship. Their counsel said they feared that their families might murder them.

“It is the bounden duty of the state as per the constitutional obligations cast upon it to protect the life and liberty of every citizen. The mere fact that the petitioner No. 2 (man) was not of marriageable age, would not deprive the petitioners of their fundamental right as envisaged in the Constitution, being citizens of India,” Justice Harnaresh Singh Gill said.

The judge directed the Gurdaspur SSP to take a decision on the couple’s December 7 request and grant protection to them, if any threat to their life and liberty is perceived.

Times View: Live-in relationships are part and parcel of our new social fabric. By granting protection to the young couple, the High Court has taken a sensible and progressive decision.

The HC’s remarks in line with a Supreme Court order in May 2018 that an adult couple can live together without marriage