‘Live-in ties against Indian middle-class values’: Allahabad HC on bail plea in rape-on-marriage-pledge case; says women suffer most after breakups | Lucknow News

PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad high court has observed that live-in relationships are against the values held by Indian middle-class society.A single-judge bench of Justice Siddharth made this observation while granting bail to a man accused of sexually exploiting a woman on the false promise of marriage.Passing the order on June 24, the bench expressed displeasure at the growing number of such cases reaching the courts. “After live-in-relationship has been legalized by the apex court, such cases are coming to the court because the concept of live-in-relationship is against the settled law in the Indian middle class society,” the bench said.The court further said live-in relationships disproportionately harm women, while men move on and even marry after such relationships end; it is difficult for women to find a life partner after a breakup.The court made these observations while dealing with the bail plea of accused Shane Alam, who had been booked under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Pocso Act for engaging in a physical relationship with a woman on the false assurance of marriage and later refusing to marry her.As per counsel for the applicant, there is allegation against the applicant of committing the offence of rape of the woman on false promise of marriage. She had gone with the applicant to a number of places but it was alleged that the applicant had refused to marry her.The woman’s lawyer argued that the accused’s actions had “ruined the woman’s entire life” and that “no one would be willing to marry her now.” After taking note of these arguments, the court observed that live-in relationships have had the “greatest impact on the younger generation” and that their “adverse consequences are evident in existing cases like the present one.The court, however, granted bail to the accused on the ground that he has been in jail since Feb 22 this year and had criminal history.