Gujarat High Court Imposes ₹5000 Cost On Man For Seeking Custody Of Live-In Partner Who Is Married To Another Man

The Gujarat High Court dismissed a habeas corpus petition with Rs. 5000/- cost on the petitioner who was seeking custody of his live-in partner alleging that she was in illegal custody of her husband.

The division bench of Justice Vipul M. Pancholi and Justice Hemant M. Prachchhak observed:

“It is not in dispute that till today, the marriage of the petitioner is not solemnized with the respondent No.4 (corpus). At the same time, divorce has not taken place between respondent No.4 (corpus) and respondent no. 5 (husband). We are, therefore, of the view that custody of respondent No.4 with respondent No.5 cannot be termed as illegal custody as alleged by the petitioner and the petitioner has no locus to file the present petition on the basis of the so-called live-in-relationship agreement.”

It was the case of the petitioner that the woman got married to another man against her wishes but thereafter, she left the matrimonial house and was residing with the petitioner. The petitioner further submitted an agreement of live-in-relationship with the corpus before the court.

The counsel for the petitioner contended that private respondents have illegally taken custody of corpus and she is in illegal custody of her husband. The petitioner prayed before the court to direct police authority to handover the custody of the corpus to the petitioner.

The APP appearing for the State argued that petitioner has no locus standi because even if the corpus is in custody of her husband, it cannot be said that corpus is in illegal custody of her husband.

After the perusal of the materials on record, the court held that custody of corpus with her husband cannot be termed as illegal and the petitioner has no locus to file the present petition.

"In the aforesaid facts and circumstances of the present case, we are not inclined to entertain the present petition. Accordingly, this petition is dismissed with cost of Rs.5,000/-. The petitioner shall deposit Rs.5,000/- (Rupees Five Thousand Only) with the Gujarat State Legal Services Authority within a period of six weeks from today," said the court.

Case Title: Bhagwan Rajabhai Chaudhari v. State of Gujarat

Case Citation: 2023 Livelaw (Guj) 55

Coram: Justice Vipul M. Pancholi and Justice Hemant M. Prachchhak

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