PRAYAGRAJ, Dec. 20 -- The Allahabad high court has ruled that a married person cannot legally enter a live-in relationship with a third party without first obtaining a decree of divorce from the earlier spouse. With this observation the court dismissed a writ petition seeking protection filed by a couple in live-in ties. Justice Vivek Kumar Singh, dismissing the petition, observed that the freedom of personal liberty is not absolute and cannot infringe upon the statutory rights of an existing spouse. The petitioners had approached the court with a prayer that both were majors. It was submitted that they have life threat from the respondent. On the other hand, the state counsel opposed the prayer made by the petitioners and submitted that the act of the petitioners was illegal as petitioner no. 1 was already married to one Dinesh Kumar and has not obtained divorce. The court, in its judgement on December 16, observed, "No one has the right to interfere in the personal liberty of the two adults, not even the parents of two adults can interfere in their relationship, but, the Right to Freedom or Right to Personal Liberty is not an absolute or unfettered right, it is qualified by some restrictions also. The freedom of one person ends where the statutory right of another person starts." "A spouse has the statutory right to enjoy the company of his or her counterpart and he/she cannot be deprived of that right for the sake of personal liberty, and no such protection can be granted to infringe the statutory right of the other spouse. Hence, the freedom of one person cannot encroach or overweigh the legal right of another person. If the petitioner is already married and his/her spouse is alive, he/she cannot be legally permitted to enter into a live-in relationship with a third person without seeking divorce from the earlier spouse," the court added....