The Allahabad High Court recently refused to allow a protection plea filed by a Muslim married woman, who had left her husband’s house voluntarily, and her Hindu live-in partner.
A bench of Justice Renu Agarwal noted that the 26-year-old woman along with her five-year-old girl child had left the house of her husband without any reasonable cause and there was no document on record to show that she had obtained any decree of divorce from the court of competent jurisdiction.
“Hence she is still the legally wedded wife of respondent no.5 (woman’s husband) and she is living in adultery with petitioner no.2 (her live-in partner),” the court held.
Therefore, the court refused to give any direction to protect the relationship of the woman with her 25-year-old live-in partner.
“The court could not protect such type of relationship which is not supported by law. If the court indulges in such type of cases and grants protection to illegal relationships, then it will create chaos in the society,” it said.
The woman and her partner moved the high court by filing a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution with prayer for issuing writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents (the State authorities and private parties including the woman’s husband) to not disturb the married life of the petitioners.
The counsel for the petitioners submitted that the woman, who was a Muslim by birth, had been earlier married to a Muslim man. He alleged that the woman’s earlier husband was a habitual drinker and he regularly used to assault her. He claimed that when the woman informed her parents about it, they did not take any action and therefore, she left the house of her husband and started to live with her present partner.
The woman’s counsel alleged that her earlier husband was threatening her and her present partner. He further apprised the court that the woman had moved an application before the Superintendent of Police for providing protection to their matrimonial life, but no protection was provided to them, hence they moved the present petition before the high court.
On the other hand, the standing counsel for the State submitted that the woman’s current relationship with her live-in partner was adulterous and also being a Muslim-Hindu couple, they had not complied with the provisions of sections 8 and 9 of Conversion Act before entering into a relationship, therefore, their relationship could not be protected by law.
The Court agreed with the submission and opined that “such type of illegal relationship need not be protected by court” and the petitioners were not entitled to get any type of protection from the high court.
The court, therefore, held that petition had no force and was liable to be dismissed with cost. Accordingly, court dismissed the plea with cost of Rs. 2,000 and directed the petitioners to deposit the costs before the mediation centre of this Court within 15 days from the date of the order.
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