@ muktha,
You have misunderstood the law here. Here is a case of dispute over maintenance between one D Velusamy and D Patchaiammal in Oct 21 2010. It was first heard in family court, then High Court of Tamilnadu and finally by Supreme Court.
Before going into the ruling, i'll give you a brief history about the case.
Mr Velusamy was legally wedded to Lakshmi in 1980. Patchaiammal had stayed with Velusamy for about three years after their alleged marriage in 1986. (Similar to Jagya-Gauri here).
The court made it clear that if the man has a live-in arrangement with a woman only for sexual reasons, neither partner can claim benefits of a legal marriage. The relation can be legal, only if the following conditions are satisfied :
1)the couple must hold themselves out to society as being akin to spouses
2) they must be of legal age to marry
3) they must be otherwise qualified to enter into a legal marriage, including being unmarried
4)they must have voluntarily cohabited for a significant period of time
The judges said (to quote their words -) if a man has a 'keep' whom he maintains financially and uses mainly for sexual purpose and/or as a servant it would not, in our opinion, be a relationship "in the nature of marriage".
As mentioned by woman11, the Supreme Court judgement of Jan 2008 makes a Live-in Relation legal. This was also discussed in the hearing, where the judges said that - The parliament has used the expression 'relationship in the nature of marriage' and not 'live-in relationship'. .
Edited by lakshmim_84 - 13 years ago