A man and a woman have been accused of keeping a woman as their slave for eight years in a suburban Melbourne home.

Sri Lankan born pair Kandasamy Kannan, 48, and Kumuthini Kannan, 52, faced the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Wednesday over allegations they kept a slave in their Mount Waverley home.

They have been charged under Commonwealth law with one count of possessing a slave and one count of exercising ownership over a slave between July 2007 and July 2015.

The alleged slave cannot be named for legal reasons.