as being akin to spouses. They must be of legal age to marry. They must be otherwise qualified to enter into a legal marriage, including being unmarried. They must have voluntarily cohabited and held themselves out to the world as being akin to spouses for a significant period of time. On 12 June 2020, the Uttarakhand High Court stated in the case of Madhu Bala v. State of Uttarakhand and others (Habeas Corpus Petition No. 8 of 2020) that consensual cohabitation between two adults of the same-sex is legal. Indonesia In Indonesia, an Islamic penal code proposed in 2005 would have made cohabitation punishable by up to two years in prison. The practice is still frowned upon, and many hotels and boarding houses have been raided by police for allowing unmarried couples to share a room. Japan In Japan, according to M. Iwasawa at the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, less than 3% of females between 25–29 are currently cohabiting, but more than one in five have had some experience of an unmarried partnership, including cohabitation. A more recent Iwasawa study has shown that there has been a recent emergence of non-marital cohabitation. Couples born in the 1950s cohort showed an incidence of cohabitation of 11.8%, where the 1960s and 1970s cohorts showed cohabitation rates of 30%, and 53.9% respectively. The split between urban and rural residence for people who had cohabited is indicates 68.8% were urban and 31.2% were rural. Philippines In the Philippines, around 2.4 million Filipinos were cohabiting . The 2000 census placed the percentage of cohabiting couples at 19%. The majority of individuals are between the ages of 20–24. Poverty was often the main factor in decision to cohabit. Iran In Iran, the cohabitation of two people is known as ‘white marriage’. According to researchers, the number of white marriages in Iranian metropolises is increasing. Under Iranian law, which is based on Islamic Sharia law, the cohabitation of a man and a woman outside the framework of official marriage is a crime. It is estimated that the duration of a cohabitation in Iran is between one and three years. cohabitation has no place in Iran from traditional social, legal and religious points of view. However, cohabitation in Iran can be explained by considering recent cultural changes in Iranian society, including the growth of individualism, modernity, and fluid relationships, and the gaps and conflicts