New Delhi: The Supreme Court has ruled that if a man and woman are involved in a live-in relationship for a long period, they will be treated as a married couple and their child would be called legitimate.
While deciding a case involving the legitimacy of a woman born out of wedlock, the court on Wednesday ruled that children born to parents 'out of wedlock' will have all the rights of a legitimate child.
The court observed that "...Where the partners lived together for long spell as husband and wife, there would be presumption in favour of wedlock. Law leans in favour of legitimacy and frowns upon bastardy."
The order came when the court was hearing a petition filed by a woman, who was born to parents who were not married.
While passing the order, an apex court Bench reversed a judgment of Madhya Pradesh High Court and restored the order of a lower court, which had in 1985 acknowledged the woman, named Loli, as the wife of a man, Radhika Singh, with whom she had lived for several years and gave birth to five daughters and a son.
The bench, headed by Arijit Pasayat also stated that while the presumption of marriage in such cases is 'rebuttable', at the same time heavy burden lies on the person who seeks to challenge such a relationship to prove that no marriage took place between them.
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