Have you been in love? If yes, you definitely are aware of that feeling of jealousy when that special person looks at someone else with adoration. It is truly devastating to know that the person you love now loves someone else, while you were still committed to them. Speaking of an unfaithful spouse, is there any law for cheating in a relationship? Can you take legal action against a cheating husband or boyfriend? Or a wife or girlfriend for that matter? Let us dig deeper into this question while going step by step in this direction.
What constitutes Cheating in a Relationship?
When a person is in a romantic relationship, there are some expectations from his/her spouse. The ultimate commitment is to stay with each other, and not see other people for physical or emotional attachment, unless it is resolved to be an open relationship by the spouses. Speaking of cheating in a relationship, the focus is upon breach of loyalty towards your spouse. There are different scenarios when people may call it cheating. For example, it could be emotional attachment with someone outside such a relationship, or even sexual relationship. Hitting another facet, the relationship could be a love affair, or a marriage as well. So, cheating in a relationship could be husband or wife being emotionally inclined towards someone else, or even having sexual intercourse outside marriage. On the other hand, it could be a boyfriend or a girlfriend in a relationship, could be a live-in relationship, having an affair with someone else.
Is cheating in a relationship wrong?
Morally, cheating is always drawn negatively, with the reason that people in a relationship are supposed to be loyal towards each other. With ever advancing western culture, there are recent talks about open relationships, where both the spouses may explore temporary flings without any objection. However, it is not as normalised in India. Looking at the other side of the picture, the reason why people cheat may not always be negative. Sometimes, you are forced into a relationship and you naturally get attracted to another. There are people who are over possessive towards their spouse, which may end up with cheating because someone else gave that space to the other spouse which felt much liberating. What’s wrong with cheating in a relationship is not speaking up while you jump towards the act. Ending a relationship before entering another, even temporary one, may prove less devastating to the other person.
There are two sides of the coin, here as well. In a marriage, if the couple does not amicably decide for a mutual divorce, proving grounds for divorce is not a cake walk. During such tough times, when the marriage only remains on paper, and one of the spouses has an affair outside marriage, is that wrong? Is it the relation bound by law or a love that feels like home that matters for a human? Maybe the definition of right and wrong totally depends upon the circumstances, since it does not at all seem to be black or white.
Legal Action for Cheating in a Relationship
Cheating in a Love Affair
If two people are committed to each other, who are not yet married, not even engaged, and only in a love affair, are not governed by any law in India. While some people assume that those in a live-in relationship are on the same pedestal as married couples, it depends upon the discretion of the Court and the grievance of a spouse as addressed under the law. If a person seeks legal action for cheating in a relationship, when his/her boyfriend or girlfriend had sexual intercourse or emotional attachment with another person and left them, there is no remedy for the same.
If the facts allow so, false promise of marriage may also be punishable under Section 69 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Few relationships may involve money, which may lead to cheating cases or breach of trust, depending upon the facts. If someone got in a relationship to get some financial benefits or fraudulently got a property transferred in his/her name, such an act definitely attracts criminal provisions. However, suing in the Court may not help if a spouse had an affair outside the relationship.
Adultery in Marriage
A marriage is a civil union, considered the most sacred relationship in India. If a husband or a wife has an emotional inclination towards someone outside the marriage, it may become a reason for the two to argue. However, there is no law for punishing cheating in a relationship for romantic attachments. Extramarital affairs law is not per se punishable as a crime, however, it could be a ground for divorce if one spouse had sexual intercourse with someone outside the marriage. It may be noted that adultery may not always end a marriage, but it does eventually break the trust between the two spouses, which affects not only them but everyone related, be it their parents or in-laws. While it is assumed that a cheating spouse in a divorce case may lose on maintenance as well as child custody, not all cases are the same.
Inference – Any Punishment for Cheating Spouse?
As we can see, regardless of whether it is a committed love affair or a marriage, there is per se no law for cheating in a relationship, to govern or to punish the same. Whenever we hear about a legal action in this regard, either it is a financial fraud (more famous as the ‘honey trap’), sexual abuse (rape cases), or the newly introduced sexual intercourse on the pretext of marriage. In other words, there is more to such stories apart from cheating in a relationship.
