‘Maitri Karar’- The law that endorsed live -in relations

When the life takes a back fall and your marriage turns sour. When you go into depression because your marriage is not working anymore. When you are forced to give divorce just because your men does not have any more interest in you. That is the place where Maitri Karar (friendship contract) takes place which has given a new dimension to commercial sex.

It gives a full authority to married men so that he can be in relationship with two women at a time. The document is in fact little more than a promise of friendship and companionship between a man and a woman at least one of whom is already married. In addition, a Maitri Karar invariably includes a legal undertaking by the man that he will look after and financially support his partner.

This practice was most followed in Gujarat in 70’s and 80’s but then it was legally banned by the court due to misuse of the law by higher caste people including many Ministers and senior bureaucrats. Later this practice was converted into a “service agreement”, according to which the man would keep the woman of his choice in his house as a helper or a maid servant.

As per the government figures 29,951 cases of ‘Maitri Karar’ have been registered in the District Collectors office in Ahmedabad.

In one interesting case, a wife approached a court in Gujarat, seeking to restrain her husband from entering into such a contract, arguing that such extra-marital relations of her husband with another woman would curtail her conjugal rights as a wife. When the city civil Judge granted the injunction against the husband, the ‘other woman’ threatened to sue the wife for defamation – and promptly, the wife’s parents tendered an unconditional apology.

Maitri Karar is a term which is followed not only in Gujarat but all over the India with a new term called Live in Relationship. It is a more defined version of Maitri Karar where a girl and boy before marriage can stay together as long as they want without any restriction. WTN