New Delhi, April 28 -- The Supreme Court on Monday cautioned against the "vagaries of relationships outside marriage" while expressing concern over a growing tendency to invoke criminal law after the breakdown of live-in relationships. A bench of justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan questioned whether a long-term live-in arrangement culminating in the birth of a child could, by itself, give rise to a criminal charge of sexual assault on a false promise to marry. "This is what happens in live-in relationships. For years they live together.if they split up, the woman files a complaint for sexual assault," observed the bench, describing these as the "vagaries of relationships outside marriage." The court's observations came as it issued notice on a woman's plea challenging the quashing of her FIR against her former partner and nudged the parties towards exploring a mediated settlement. It was hearing a challenge to a Madhya Pradesh High Court quashing order in rape on false promise case, which had set aside criminal proceedings under provisions of BNS. The complainant alleged that she had been induced into a relationship on the promise of marriage, unaware that the accused was already married, and was later abandoned after years of cohabitation. The bench repeatedly probed the nature and duration of the relationship, noting that the parties had lived together for years and had a child. It questioned how such a relationship could later be recast as a criminal offence. Justice Nagarathna underscored that in the absence of marriage, parties in a live-in relationship assume certain risks....