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AHMEDABAD: In a first in Gujarat , a local court on Saturday asked a youth from Bhuvel village near Nadiad town to pay maintenance to his ex-girlfriend after they broke up and the girl sued him under the Domestic Violence (DV) Act.

Additional metropolitan magistrate A R Patel also ordered Ravi Macwan to pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation to his live-in partner holding that allegations of mental and physical cruelty and sexual exploitation amount to domestic violence during their live-in relationship. Macwan was also asked to pay a monthly maintenance of Rs 3,000 to the woman.

"This arrangement should continue until the woman gets married or the youth proves before the court that she is in a relationship with some other person," the court ordered.

Macwan and her girlfriend signed a maitri karaar (friendship agreement on affidavit) prepared in January 2013 and started living with his family. After a year-long live-in relationship, the woman backed out alleging that she was tortured with sexual and physical violence by Macwan and mental harassment by his family members.

After the break-up, Macwan allegedly continued to harass the woman, who then filed a complaint under DV laws against him and his family members in 2014. After hearing the case, the court observed that as the couple lived like a husband and wife the responsibility of the woman's maintenance was on on him. The court also noticed that Macwan committed fraud by not marrying on the ground that their marriage would not be allowed as one of them is Roman Catholic while the other a Protestant.

Discussing about the cruelty on women in society, the judge wrote, "Male dominated society has not been able to abolish the evil. The words like honour, respect and equality for women have been confined to speeches and poetry only, and the number of incidents of domestic violence project a contrasting picture which is shocking. Moreover, due to scientific and biological reasons, women possess less physical strength than men and hence women become victim of the cruelty."

