The Kerala High Court has held that the law does not recognise live-in relationships as marriage; it considers as a legal union only weddings solemnised according to personal or secular laws.
Therefore, a couple that lives together by virtue of an agreement cannot claim it to be a marriage nor seek a divorce based on that, the high court said.
The ruling by a bench of Justices A Muhamed Mustaque and Sophy Thomas came on an interfaith couple's appeal against a family court order dismissing their plea for divorce on the ground that their marriage was not solemnised under the Special Marriage Act