India pageant queen returns crown

Ms Pandit (right) shares the stage with runners-up at the contest

Miss India, Lakshmi Pandit, has handed back her crown after a controversy erupted over her marital status.

Indian media had reported that the beauty queen crowned amid much fanfare only last week was married - in violation of the pageant's rules.

Ms Pandit insists she is still single, but pretended to be married in order to rent a flat with her live-in boyfriend.

The controversy has shocked India, which still frowns upon unwed couples and single women who live alone.

Ms Pandit was crowned at a glittering ceremony on Saturday in India's entertainment capital, Bombay, also known as Mumbai.

She beat off stiff competition from 29 contestants who had been selected from more than 6,000 women from all over the country.

World success

The organisers of the competition have now set up a three-member committee to examine the allegations and to find a replacement for Ms Pandit.

Former beauty contest winner Aishwarya Rai - now a movie star

Ms Pandit has submitted an affidavit that apparently shows she is unmarried and has not violated competition rules.

But, she said, she is nonetheless handing back her crown because her current emotional condition means she cannot focus on preparations for the international version of the beauty pageant, Miss World.

A number of previous Miss India winners have gone on to win the Miss World and Miss Universe titles - among them Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen and Lara Dutta.

Social issue

The BBC's Bombay correspondent, Zubair Ahmed, says the media had begun probing Ms Pandit's past for salacious details almost as soon as she was crowned.

Along with the allegation that the new Miss India was, in fact, Mrs India, came the charge that she was too old for the title, which is barred to women over 24.

Our correspondent says Ms Pandit has made an important point in rebutting the allegations - namely, that India's growing army of unmarried working women often find it hard to rent homes in conservative middle-class neighbourhoods.

In the wake of the controversy, the man alleged in the media to be Ms Pandit's husband - male model Siddharth Mishra - has also been disqualified from a beauty contest he was to have taken part in this week.