Man seeks custody of married girlfriend, gets fined Rs 5,000

They say all is fair in love and war.

Well, a man in Gujarat took this to a whole new level when he approached the High Court seeking custody of his married girlfriend from her husband based on a ‘live-in agreement’ that they had signed.

This man from Gujarat’s Banaskantha district approached the HC stating that the woman with whom he was in a relationship was married off against her will, as reported by The Times of India. He alleged that she had left her husband and his house and started to live with him. However, the woman’s family and in-laws came and picked her up after a while.

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The man filed a habeas corpus petition in the HC claiming that his girlfriend was in illegal custody of her husband against her will. Stating that the man had no locus standi to file a petition as such, the state government iterated that if a woman was in custody of her husband, it could not be termed ‘illegal’.

The bench hearing the matter noted that neither did the petitioner marry the woman nor did she divorce her husband. "We are, therefore, of the view that custody of respondent No. 4 (the woman) with respondent No.5 (her husband) cannot be termed 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."

To reprimand the petitioner, the court imposed a Rs 5,000 fine on him and asked him to deposit the money with the State Legal Services Authority.