New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that women in “live-in-relationships” are not entitled to maintenance under the Domestic Violence Act but expressed sympathy for such women who become victims of predatory men.
It ruled that giving relief to a woman living with a married man (as in the present case) would amount to granting legitimacy to the extramarital relationship at the cost of the man's legally wedded wife and her children.
However, the court felt that Parliament should suitably amend the act to provide for sufficient relief for women thrown out of live-in relationships.
A bench headed by justice KS Radhakrishnan said the ambit of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 - which for the first time recognized a man-woman relationship outside wedlock - did not cover live-in relationships in general.
After giving this interpretation to live-in relationship between a married man and an unmarried woman, the bench said if the married man walked out of such a relationship, the woman was not entitled to seek maintenance under DV Act from him.
On the contrary, it warned, the deserted woman ran a risk of being sued for damages by the man's wife and children for alienating them from the love and care of their husband/father.
But the bench was aware of the social reality of married men walking out of live-in relationships. Finding that in such situations, poor and illiterate women suffered the most, the apex court appealed to Parliament to take remedial measures through appropriate legislation.
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