- Women in live-in relationships like marriage get protection under Section 498A of IPC
- Supreme Court clarified protection applies only if intent to marry is proven
- Section 498A covers harassment by husbands or in-laws causing mental or physical injury
Women in live-in relationships which are "in the nature of marriage" will get protection under a section of the law that deals with harassment cases involving husbands and in-laws, the Supreme Court has said.
This means the coverage of Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been extended to include women in live-in relationships in certain cases.
A Supreme Court bench of Justices Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh and Sanjay Karol, however, said the order is strictly applicable only to live-in relationships where the intent to marry has been proven.
A legally married woman getting protection against cruelty but a woman in a relationship that's like marriage not getting any protection would be unconstitutional and violate Article 14 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court said.
"When the objective of the Section 498A was to provide coverage to those cases where harassment by husband or in-laws through wilful conduct causing mental or physical injury or driving the woman to suicide, then to say that such harassment can only be caused when they are married and not before that, in our considered view, would be a case of over simplification," the bench said.
"This distinction between married and live-in relationship in the nature of marriage, in as much as it relates to the protection envisaged by Section 498A, has no rational nexus with the object of preventing domestic violence and is as such offensive to Article 14 of the Constitution of India," it said.
The Supreme Court made the observations while upholding a decision by the Karnataka High Court. The high court had denied a man's request for cancellation of proceedings against him under Section 498A citing the provision was not applicable to live-in relationships.
