1978 INSC 0178
                                                     Badri Prasad

                                                           Vs

                                    Dy. Director of Consolidation and Others

                          Special Leave Petition (Civil) Nos. 1731 and 927 of 1978

                          (V. R. Krishna Iyer, D. A. Desai, O. Chinnappa Reddy JJ)

                                                      01.08 1978

                                                        ORDER

1. For around 50 years, a man and a woman, as the facts in this case unfold, lived as husband and
wife. An adventurist challange to the factum of marriage between the two, by the petitioner in this
special leave petition, has been negatived by the High Court. A strong presumption arises in favour
of wedlock where the partners have lived together for a long spell as husband and wife. Although
the presumption is rebuttable, a heavy burden lies on him who seeks to deprive the relationship of
legal origin. Law leans in favour of legitimacy and frowns upon bastardy. In this view, the
contention of Shri Garg, for the petitioner, that long after the alleged marriage, evidence has not
been produced to sustain its ceremonial processes by examining the priest or other witnesses,
deserves no consideration. If men and women who live as husband and wife in society are
compelled to prove, half a century later, by eye-witness evidence that they were validly married,
few will succeed. The contention deserves to be negatived and we do so without hesitation. The
special leave petitions are dismissed.

</html