No man has right to compel any woman to fall in love with him: High Court

Expressing concern over rise in incidents of spurned lovers attacking women, the Madras High Court on Monday denied bail to an accused namely Kavin who has been arrested for stabbing his girlfriend who refused to marry him. Justice N Anand Venkatesh said that the trend was on rise and it was high time that courts bring some sanity in society.

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Monday expressed concern over rise in incidents of spurned lovers attacking women in a brutal manner and observed that refusal to marry does not give men right to stab them, as it denied bail to an accused.

This trend was on the rise and it was high time that courts put down their foot and bring some sanity in society, Justice N Anand Venkatesh said.

"These incidents continue to happen because man thinks that a woman is a chattel and she has to concede to whatever a man demands. This attitude has to be changed and no man has any right to compel any girl to fall in love with him or to marry him," the judge said.

Justice Venkatesh directed prison authorities to provide psychiatric counseling to the accused to bring him to "normalcy.

The judge passed the order on a bail application moved by Kavin who has been arrested for stabbing his girlfriend who refused to marry him.

"This is yet another case where the lover of the victim girl has attacked in a brutal manner with knife on her refusing to marry him.

"Incidents of this nature are continuing to happen on a daily basis and it has reached monstrous proportions where man seem to think that the girl has to concede to their request for love/marriage and on refusal to do so, they take the extreme step of brutally attacking girls and had also gone to the extent of setting them to fire," the court said.

The courts must stop being merciful or tend to have misplaced sympathies in cases of this nature, it observed.

If the accused person had committed the crime, since he is wounded by the conduct of the girl who had suddenly refused to marry him, that does not give him a right to resort to stabbing a woman, the court said.