Outrageous as the ruling, prima facie, about premarital sex being equated to marriage is, there should be no confusion over the good intentions behind it. If a man is in a live-in relationship long enough to have had children with a woman, it is clear that he has a moral as well as financial responsibility towards the children. To that extent, the operational part of the order by a judge of the Madras high court seems clear.
The obiter dicta is, however, so distracting as to hide the essentials as a judge forayed into the difficult area of morals, sex and living arrangements between consenting adults. The judge’s argument that consummation is sufficient to compel a man to seek a divorce if he breaks away from a relationship is absurd. “The main legal aspect for a valid marriage is consummation or sexual interaction. Legal rights applicable to normal wedded couples will also be applicable to couples who have had sexual relationships which are established”, the judge said. When there’s no marriage, pray where does the question of obtaining a divorce arise?
The implications for anyone indulging in casual sex, including professionals, can be severe if he is held to ransom as sex is equated with marriage. The very idea that any sex is marital is to overturn the received wisdom of several millennia of human behaviour. Suffice it to say that such thinking alone won’t lend the verdict the status of a cause célébre even if it makes us feel it is so.