Court refuses to interfere in cousins' live-in relationship

The Bombay high court has flatly refused to interfere in a live-in relationship between the cousins and ordered that the decision of a girl to live with her cousin would be at her discretion. However, except for some communities, such a union is void under the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA), 1955.

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While disposing of a habeas corpus petition filed by Inderpal Walia, 37, the Bombay high court said that the decision of a girl to live with her cousin would be at her discretion. In his petition, Walia had said that he fell in love with his first cousin Harmandeep Kaur, 19, when he met her in Amritsar in March 2008.

He had also lived with Harmandeep as “husband and wife” at her parents’ house before they got married in Mumbai on January 21, 2009. Walia says though her parents initially agreed to their marriage, Harmandeep was forcibly taken away from him in September 2009. Walia had pleaded before the court to allow Harmandeep to live with him since he fears his wife would be married off to an NRI.

A division bench of justices AM Khanwilkar and UD Salvi, however, refused to grant permission for their live-in relationship. “The court cannot be expected to put a seal on an arrangement which is not recognised in law,” justice Khanwilkar said. The judges held that the purpose of the habeas corpus petition was served as Harmandeep had been brought before the court and she was “hale and hearty”. The judges said the girl was an adult and she could take decisions on her own.