Protection or Surveillance? Examining the Right to Privacy Under the Mandatory Registration Framework for Live-In Relationships And Criminal Liability for False Promises of Marriage and Deception Under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023

Author(s)	Pragati Shridhar, Shivanshu Katare
Country	India
Abstract	The Uniform Civil Code, Uttarakhand, 2024 makes registration of live-in relationships compulsory and penalises non-compliance, while the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 independently criminalises sexual intercourse obtained by deceitful means or by a false promise of marriage. This article asks whether these two regimes, read together, protect intimate partners or place them under State surveillance. Applying the proportionality framework of Puttaswamy, it argues that the protective aims of registration are legitimate but that its design, comprising compulsory disclosure, police intimation, parental notice for those under twenty-one and third-party complaints, fails the necessity and balancing stages. It further argues that Section 69 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, as narrowed by the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Kunal Rameshbhai Kalyani, demands proof of deceit at inception, and that registration records must not become a shortcut for proving or negating that intention. The article concludes with legislative and interpretive reforms.
Keywords	live-in relationships; right to privacy; Uniform Civil Code; Uttarakhand; Section 69 BNS; false promise of marriage; proportionality; surveillance
Discipline	Other
Published In	Volume 4, Issue 5, September-October 2026
Published On	2026-10-16

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Advanced International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research