Live-In Relationships - Getting A New Life

Recent judgments in the courts seek to protect the rights of children of unmarried parents and chip away at the social prejudices against live-in relationships

- Romita Datta

Rhea Iqbal (name changed) learned what the word bastard meant at the age of four on the school playground. It is what her friends called her that day, having overheard their parents refer to the little girl as one. “We gained acceptance as an unmarried couple easily and thought our child would too. But later we regretted being honest with the school. It would have been far easier to say I had been widowed,” says her mother Safeena Iqbal (name changed), a 36-year-old history teacher in Pune. Her partner, Varun Kapoor (name changed), is a management consultant and spends much of the year travelling. When in town, the couple live together. They have been together for over a decade and decided not to marry to avoid confrontation with family over religion. “Over the years, our families got used to the relationship. When Rhea came, they accepted her readily too and we thought others would too. But the social exclusion our daughter has faced has been shocking,” says Kapoor.

On June 14, the Supreme Court came up with a historic verdict—children born to couples living together for a considerable period will be entitled to inherit ancestral property. The ruling has built on an earlier pronouncement acknowledging the legitimacy of children of unmarried parents, almost a decade ago. But the new division bench order of Justices Abdul Nazeer and Vikram Nath at the apex court took the recognition a notch further by guaranteeing them inheritance rights.