Women in live-in relationships must be 'eligible' for maintenance: SC

A woman in a live-in relationship is not entitled to maintenance unless she fulfills certain parameters, the Supreme Court held on Thursday while observing that merely spending weekends together or a one-night stand would not make it a domestic relationship.

A Bench comprising Justices Markandey Katju and T S Thakur said that in order to get maintenance, a woman, even if not married, has to fulfill the following four requirements:
(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 and held themselves out to the world as being akin to spouses for a significant period of time.

"In our opinion, not all live-in relationships will amount to a relationship in the nature of marriage to get the benefit of the Act of 2005 (Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act). To get such benefits the conditions mentioned by us above must be satisfied and this has to be proved by evidence.