India, June 8 -- Pre-marital physical relationships between consenting adults cannot be treated as evidence of questionable character, the Supreme Court has held, observing that such relationships are increasingly common in contemporary society and are not prohibited by any law.

The court said that while character verification is an important component of recruitment to disciplined forces, the exercise cannot be reduced to an assessment based on personal notions of morality. What is relevant is whether the conduct in question discloses criminality, dishonesty, violence or traits incompatible with public service, it added.

A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Manmohan observed that modern society increasingly witnesses consensual relation...