The Uttarakhand High Court has ruled that if two adults are in a long-term consensual relationship, a later refusal to marry does not automatically amount to rape under Section 376 of the IPC. The court stated that for a rape to be considered valid, it must be evident that the promise to get married was false right from the beginning and was only made to obtain consent.
The case involved a woman from Mussoorie who accused a man named Suraj Bora of having physical relations with her on the promise of marriage. The woman stated that the man promised to get married to her within 45 days, but then went back on his word and did not marry her. The police then filed a chargesheet against the man after examining the woman’s complaint. The man then moved to the High Court and challenged the charges against him, stating that the case against him be dismissed.
The defence stated that the woman and the man were both adults and had been in a relationship for a very long time. According to them, there was nothing in the FIR to show that Bora had any dishonest intention at the start of the relationship. They described it as a failed relationship and said that turning it into a criminal case would amount to misuse of the legal process.
On the other hand, the state government’s lawyers and the woman’s counsel opposed the plea. They argued that the woman had agreed to the physical relationship only because of the promise of marriage. They said that whether the promise was false from the very beginning could only be decided during a full trial after examining the evidence.
Court’s observations
Justice Ashish Naithani observed that an adult woman’s consent does not automatically become invalid just because the relationship did not end in marriage. The judge said that to treat such a case as rape, it had to be established that the accused had no intention of marrying the victim, but had only used the promise as a means to attain consent.
“The consent given by an adult woman does not become tainted merely because the relationship did not culminate in marriage. To consider it an offence under Section 376, it must be shown that the promise of marriage was only a means to obtain consent and the accused never intended to marry,” ruled Justice Ashish Naithani.
The court noted that the couple had been in a long-term relationship and had engaged in repeated physical relations, indicating mutual consent rather than deception at the start. Finding no solid grounds to continue the case, the High Court quashed the criminal proceedings pending before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Dehradun, along with the chargesheet dated 22nd July 2023 against Suraj Bora.
