Living in: Maharashtra sets the ball rolling
Written by Writer on Thursday, October 16th, 2008
Living in: Maharashtra sets the ball rolling
Mumbai, Oct 15: After opposition from various quaters to its proposal to legalize live-in relationships, Maharashtra government today decided to send it to the state Women Commission.
A decision to this effect was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh.
The proposal is based on recommendations of the Justice Mallimath committee which seeks to expand the definition of wife under Section 125 of CrPC ~ to include in it woman “living as wife” with a person for a reasonably long period.
The state Cabinet at its last Cabinet meeting had approved the amendment and sent it to the President for approval.
But the proposal was opposed by BJP and some leaders of ruling Congress. As a result, the government has decided to study the proposal again and get recommendations from the Women Commission, an official said.
“This is not about live-in relationship, as the media has been saying. Neither does it change the status of couples in live-in relationship. That would entail changing a host of laws,” Mr MN Geelani, principal secretary, Law and Judiciary Department, said.
“In rural areas, you will find that often a man marries another woman despite first wife being alive for reasons such as the first one has not borne a child. Then after some years, the husband throws out the second wife, saying he is already married and the other woman is not his legally wedded wife,” he said. “It is to protect these women also we are bringing in this amendment,” Mr Geelani said.
Homosexuality
The Delhi High Court today pulled up the Centre for relying on religious texts to justify the prohibition on gay sex in the country and asked it to come up with scientific reports to justify it.
The Court’s remarks came when the Additional Solicitor General Mr P P Malhotra was referring to an article condemning gay sex by quoting Bible.
“We should not accept religious literature instead of scientific report,” a bench headed by Chief Justice Mr A P Shah said. “These are not scientific reports. These are articles quoting Bible which is a propaganda. Your arguments should be based on scientific reports. Show us scientific reports which justify criminalisation of such acts,” the Bench observed.
