The Supreme Court has cautioned against the misuse of criminal laws after the breakdown of live-in relationships, highlighting the 'vagaries of relationships outside marriage.'
A bench of justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan expressed concern over the growing tendency to invoke criminal law after the end of live-in relationships, noting that such cases often arise from 'consensual relationships' that go sour.
The court was hearing a challenge to a Madhya Pradesh High Court quashing order in a rape on false promise case, where the complainant alleged that she had been induced into a relationship on the promise of marriage, only to be abandoned after years of cohabitation.
The bench questioned how such a relationship could later be recast as a criminal offence, noting that the parties had lived together for years and had a child.
Justice Nagarathna underscored that in the absence of marriage, parties in a live-in relationship assume certain risks, and that such conduct, by itself, does not automatically attract criminal liability.
The court suggested that the complainant may explore civil remedies, particularly for the maintenance and welfare of the child, and flagged the delay in initiating criminal proceedings.
