The Bombay High Court recently quashed an FIR and chargesheet for rape based on a false promise of marriage, stating that the victim had the intelligence to understand the situation and gave her consent willingly. The court made this observation in the context of a relationship between the victim and the accused, who belonged to different castes but were in love.
The case involved a man seeking to quash charges under Section 376(2)(n) of the Indian Penal Code (rape) and sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Justice Vinay Joshi and Justice Vrushali V. Joshi noted that the victim, an engineering student, was fully aware of the moral implications of the relationship and had consented to it.
The prosecution alleged that the accused had sexual relations with the victim under the false promise of marriage. However, the court found that both parties had intended to marry, and the accused’s intent was not to deceive. The families had even made efforts to arrange the marriage in the first two years of the relationship.
The court cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in Pramod Suryabhan Pawar vs State of Maharashtra (2019), which clarified that for consent to be vitiated by a false promise of marriage, the promise must be made in bad faith with no intention of being fulfilled at the time. In this case, the court found no evidence of deceit, as the couple had been in a relationship for five years, regularly met, stayed at each other’s homes, and the accused’s family had shown an active interest in the marriage.
The court further noted that there was no sign that the accused had a deceitful intent while expressing his desire to marry. The FIR and chargesheet were quashed, and the court set aside the charges, allowing the application.
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