New Delhi/Allahabad:

Referring to live-in relationships, Allahabad High Court earlier this week observed that a “systematic design is working to destroy the institution of marriage in India.”

The high court made the observation while granting bail to a man accused of raping his live-in partner.

The single bench of Justice Siddarth said that “the security, social acceptance and stability”which the institution of marriage provides to a person is never provided by live-in-relationship. “The brutish concept of changing partners in every season cannot be considered to be a hallmark of a stable and healthy society,” he said.

The high court observed that middle-class morality cannot be ignored in India. “Live-in-relationship shall only be considered as normal after the institution of marriage becomes obsolete in this country, like in many of the so-called developed countries where it has become a big problem for them to protect the institution of marriage,” the high court said.

In its order, the high court also noted that with a similar trend in the country, “we are proceeding to create a great problem for us in future.”

“Infidelity to a partner in a married relationship and having a free live-in-relationship are being shown as signs of a progressive society. The youth gets attracted to such philosophy being advanced, unaware of the long-term consequences”, the high court said.

Adnan was accused by his live-in partner of resiling from his promise to marry her. He was arrested in April this year on the basis of a complaint filed by the 19-year-old woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur.

They lived together for a year. When the woman got pregnant, Adnan refused to marry her, following which, the woman filed a complaint against him, alleging that he had sex with her on the false promise of marriage.