COURTS must presume couples involved in long-term live-in relationships to be married, the Supreme Court has said.
''If a man and a woman cohabit for a number of years, it will be presumed under section 114 of the Evidence Act, that they live as husband and wife and the children born to them will not be illegitimate,'' a bench comprising Justices P. Sathasivam and B. S. Chauhan said. They also quoted a related apex court judgment from 1992.
The bench observed that such sustained association cannot be termed ''walk in and walk out'' relationships and it was for the party opposing the presumption of marriage to prove the contrary in such cases. The bench, which was hearing a dispute over the inheritance of the property of a freedom fighter, Chandra Deo Singh, upheld the right of his children born out of a live-in relationship, to his property.
Singh got into a live-in relationship with Shakuntala, after the death of his wife. His children born out of wedlock filed a case against those born to his live- in partner over the inheritance of property.
The Allahabad High Court ruled against Singh's sons born to his wife. Therefore, they approached the apex court arguing that there was nothing on record to show that their father got married to Shakuntala, who he had been living with after the death of their mother Sonbarsa in 1945.
Advocate Abhay Kumar, appearing for Shakuntala's children, submitted that Singh had been living with Shakuntala for a long time and society had accepted their relationship as husband and wife.
Singh, who was jailed during the freedom struggle from 1945 to 1947, had lived with Shakuntala till his death in 1979.
While accepting Kumar's contention, the bench pointed out that the courts had consistently held there was a presumption of marriage in such cases and that such a presumption could only be rebutted by unimpeachable evidence
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