Yes! In a recent judgment of Jan 2021, “the Allahabad High Court ruled that a married woman moving in with another man without divorcing her spouse cannot claim to be in a live-in relationship and seek legal sanctity later.”
It is well established under Hindu Marriage Act If you want to marry another man then first give divorce to your husband. Without divorce, the second marriage is an offence under section 494 of IPC. Similarly, a Live-in relationship also will be treated as an act of adultery punishable with a jail term.
Beneficial Keypoints-
- As ruled in the above case of Allahabad High Court, your wife is living in a live-in-relationship cannot seek legal sanctity later against you.
- Section 10 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1995 defines “adultery as a ground for judicial separation.”
- The Hindu Marriage Act has recognized adultery itself as an offence and no additional offence has to be proved to obtain a decree of divorce or judicial separation.
- Chief Justice Deepak Mishra clearly stated in the 2018 judgment of Joseph Shine that “Adultery can be a ground for divorce, It can be a part of civil law involving penalties. Manifest arbitrariness is writ large even in case of a married woman whose marriage has broken down, as a result of which she no longer cohabits with her husband, and may, in the duration, have obtained a decree for judicial separation against her husband, preparatory to a divorce being granted. If during this period, she enters into sexual intercourse with another man, the other man is immediately guilty of the offence of Adultery.
