The Madhya Pradesh High Court has clarified that a woman cannot allege rape on the pretext of marriage simply because a long-term consensual relationship does not end in marriage.
Justice Sanjay Dwivedi of the Jabalpur Bench quashed a rape case against a man who had been in a consensual relationship with the complainant for ten years. The relationship began during high school and continued until 2020. The complainant filed an FIR in 2021, claiming the man developed physical relations with her on a false promise of marriage but later refused to marry her.
The court highlighted that consensual relationships, even if they do not lead to marriage, cannot automatically be considered rape. Justice Dwivedi noted that in youthful relationships, couples often believe their bond will result in marriage, but when such expectations fail, it cannot be treated as a criminal offence.
He further explained that a “false promise of marriage” can amount to rape only if the promise was made with an intent to deceive from the very beginning. In this case, the decade-long relationship indicated mutual consent rather than coercion or fraud.
The court emphasized that not every broken promise amounts to rape, especially when the relationship was prolonged and consensual. For a claim to fall under “misconception of fact” as per Section 90 of the IPC, the deception must be immediate and directly related to consent at the time of the act.
Concluding that the requirements of Section 375 IPC were not satisfied, the High Court quashed the case, holding that the complainant’s own statements showed the relationship was consensual.
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