India SC Urges Caution in Premarital Relationships

The Supreme Court of India on Monday urged young men and women to exercise caution in premarital physical relationships, describing unmarried individuals as strangers who should approach such interactions with circumspection. The remarks came during a hearing on a bail application filed by a man accused of assaulting a 30-year-old woman on the false promise of marriage, with the bench questioning the circumstances that led to their encounters in Delhi and Dubai.

A bench comprising Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan reviewed the case, in which the complainant alleges the man, whom she met on a matrimonial website in 2022, repeatedly assured her of marriage while establishing physical relations with her on multiple occasions. The woman claims she traveled to Dubai at his insistence, where he again engaged in physical intimacy under the same pretext. She further accused him of recording intimate videos without her consent and threatening to distribute them if she resisted. The complainant later discovered that the man was already married at the time of their meeting and had wed another woman on January 19, 2024, in Punjab.

During the proceedings, Justice Nagarathna expressed...