Advise to 20-yr-old for live-in relationship: Gujarat HC comes to rescue of advocate

By A Representative
In a unique case, the Gujarat High Court came to the rescue of a Narmada-based lawyer against whom an FIR came to be registered on the ground that he advised a couple to enter into a live in agreement despite the fact that the boy was only 20 years and 6 months and not 21 years i.e. the legal age for a man to get married in India.
Justice RP Dholaria passed an order protecting the Petitioner Advocate from arrest and admitted the quashing petition.
Advocate Ronith Joy appearing for the Petitioner submitted that any person above the age of 18 can enter into an agreement/contract in India. A live-in agreement is very different from and cannot be tantamous to actual marriage. Advising a couple to enter into a live in agreement cannot attract punishment under Sections 10 & 11(1) of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.
The matter has now been posted on August 19, 2020.

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