Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh High Court has observed that it was the responsibility of the woman in a relationship to protect her modesty and dignity.
"It is the responsibility of a man not to exploit any woman by compelling her for sexual relationship but then it is ultimately the woman who is the protector of her own body and, therefore, her prime responsibility is to protect her own dignity and modesty," justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan said while accepting the pre-arrest bail application of rape accused Baldev Raj.
Justice Chauhan observed that "the record reveals that the parties are not strangers and the affidavits and other documents placed on record do suggest that they shared a relationship which was more than just friends."
The woman, a widow and a mother, has submitted that the accused had forced her into a physical relationship on the pretext of marriage for more than a year and a half but the record reveals the case to be a classic example of a relationship having gone sour, the court said.
Justice Chauhan said that "once the prosecutrix knew that the petitioner is a married man, it was for her to restrain herself and not indulge in intimate activities and therefore her prime responsibility is to ensure that in a relationship, her own dignity and modesty is protected.
"A woman is not expected to throw herself to a man and indulge in promiscuity, thereby becoming a source of hilarity and it is for her to maintain her purity, chastity and virtues," the court said.
An FIR was registered at Chotta Shimla police station against the accused on July 28, 2015 under section 376 IPC on the complaint filed by a woman who is a widow.
In the present case, the accused was known to the woman and had shared the relationship for quite some time and once it turned sour, the charges of rape were filed, the judge added.
