National News

SC on live-in relationships

August 11 , 2026 15 hrs 0 min 79 0

The Supreme Court extends domestic cruelty offence to live-in relationships.
The Supreme Court said the criminal offence of domestic cruelty would extend to live-in relationships between consenting adults that qualify as “relationships in the nature of marriage”.
The judgment came while dealing with a question whether a man who is in a live-in relationship can be prosecuted under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Section 498A (domestic cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code, now replaced by Sections 85 and 86 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, should not be limited to married relationships alone.
Live-in relationships were a reality in modern, urban life.
The court said the marital status of a woman, in the present day, did not have a proximate link to the objective of Section 498A, which was to prevent cruelty in a household setting.
The court reasoned those relationships in the nature of marriage and which show the requisite intent to marry were the “closest to marriage itself”.