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Compatibility is an important component of a partnership. Marriage is considered a sacred bond where not just two people but two families come together. But marriage means bigger responsibilities and lengthy procedures for divorce and separation. To escape this, many people these days enter into live-in relationships. India as a society has seen rapid changes in beliefs and thoughts in the past few years. People are gradually accepting premarital sex and live-in relationship.
Live-in relationships are those relationships where two consenting adults come together and decide to share a household without marriage. Although a lot of components are similar to marriage, it is not legally enforceable. The judiciary has accepted that it is not illegal, but there is a lack of proper laws to govern such matters effectively. Honorable Justice A.K. Ganguly, in the case of Revanasiddappa v. Mallikarjun, said that
“With changing social norms of legitimacy in every society, including ours, what was illegitimate in the past may be legitimate today.”
In some cases, children are born out of such relationships. There have been debates about what happens when the partners split. The judiciary has upheld the justice and rights of the children. So, the children born out of live-in relationships have the right to a normal life. In the older times, uncodified law-governed personal issues.
Under the older law, only the son born outside of marriage was entitled to maintenance by his father. He was must provide maintenance by his father till he attains the age of majority. But there were no such provisions about the illegitimate female children. After the codified law came into existence such matters are governed under Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956. Now the female child is also entitled to maintenance by her father. The father must maintain his children born out of live-in relationship till the boy attains the age of majority, and the girl gets married. If the father of such children is not alive, then the heirs of the deceased have the responsibility to pay maintenance to the children from the inherited property.
Earlier Section 16 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 considered the children born out of the void or voidable marriage as 'illegitimate'. But after the amendment of this section through The Marriage Laws (Amendment) Act in 2010, all the children are considered 'legitimate'. In S.P.S. Balasubramanyam v. Suruttayan, the apex court held that
“If a man and woman are living under the same roof and cohabiting for some years, there will be a presumption under Section 114 Evidence Act that they live as husband and wife and the children born to them will not be illegitimate.”
Children born out of live-in relationships do not however have rights of inheritance. There has not been any change in the law on ancestral property rights or coparcenary rights. The children born out of live-in relationships can inherit only the property of parents and not the ancestral property. This was held in the case of Neelamma v. Sarojamma. However, recently in the case of Revanasiddappa v. Mallikarjun, it was held that
"Child born in illegitimate relationship/Void marriage is innocent and is entitled to all rights to the property to which his parents are entitled whether ancestral or self-acquired property."
References
For a more detailed understanding, refer to the" Revanasiddappa v. Mallikarjun" case study by clicking the case below.