Estranged live-in partner is entitled to alimony under Domestic Violence Act, says Supreme Court

Considering the increasing number of live-in relationships in modern India, the Supreme Court (SC) wants the scope of the provision for maintenance under section 125 of the criminal procedure code (CrPC) expanded, so that women in such relationships do not face economic deprivation after living in a domestic set-up for years.

Justice GS Singhvi and Justice AK Ganguly have urged chief justice SH Kapadia to set up a larger bench to consider

1) whether “the living together of a man and woman as husband   and wife for a considerable period would raise the presumption of a valid marriage between them and whether such a presumption would entitle the woman to maintenance under section 125 CrPC?’’

2) “Whether proof of marriage is essential for a claim of maintenance under the section?”

3) “Whether a marriage performed according to customary rites, without strictly fulfilling the requisites of the Hindu Marriage Act, or any other personal law, would entitle the woman to maintenance under the section?”

The bench also wanted an expansive interpretation of the term ‘wife’ to include cases where a man and woman have been living together as husband and wife for a reasonably long period. The judges said the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence (DV) Act of 2005 gave a very broad definition of the term ‘domestic abuse’, which must include economic abuse.  

Justice Singhvi and Justice Ganguly raised the questions after hearing a petition by Chanmuniya seeking maintenance from bother-in-law Virendra Kumar Singh Kushwaha, whom she claimed to have married under the customary law after her husband’s death, but had no proof.

Kushwaha refused to pay maintenance saying she wasn’t his legally wedded wife.

Faced with the dilemma whether Chanmuniya was Kushwaha’s wife or not, but realising that she had been living with him for years, the bench said the Domestic Violence Act gave a wide interpretation of the term “domestic relationship” which went beyond a marital relationship and even included live-ins.

Therefore, women in live-ins were also entitled to all reliefs given in the said act, the court said, adding that if monetary relief could be awarded in cases of live-ins under the act, it should be also allowed under section 125 of CrPC.