SC to examine whether a live-in partner should get maintenance

• The Supreme Court on decided to examine whether a live-in partner, concubine or a girlfriend is entitled to maintenance even though under existing Indian laws she is not eligible for the same.
•  The apex court passed the direction while chiding a man for having intimate relationship with a woman for 14 years but refusing to pay her maintenance on the ground that she was not legally entitled to it. 
• A Bench of Justices Markandeya Katju and T S Thakur appointed senior counsel Jayant Bhushan to assist the court on the issue and posted the matter for further hearing on Wednesday. 
• The Bench said though Indian laws may not permit it yet, there was no reason why such benefit should not be extended to a live-in-partner and cited the ruling of a Californian court in the US which had ordered similar relief by invoking the doctrine of "palimony."