DEHRADUN: In a significant legal clarification, the Uttarakhand High Court has ruled that a long-term consensual relationship between two adults cannot be categorised as rape merely because it later fails to culminate in marriage.
The court held that the inability to fulfil a promise of marriage does not by itself constitute an offence under Section 376 of the IPC, unless it is established that the promise was malafide or false from the very beginning.
The ruling came while hearing a petition filed by Suraj Bora, who sought the quashing of a criminal case and a chargesheet filed against him by a Mussoorie-based woman.
The complainant had alleged that she entered into a physical relationship with the accused on the assurance that they would marry within 45 days.
Setting aside the proceedings pending before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Dehradun, Justice Ashish Naithani observed that consent given by an adult woman is not automatically “vitiated” or invalidated merely because a relationship subsequently ends.
“To categorise such an act as an offence under Section 376, it must be established that the promise of marriage was a mere tool to obtain consent, and that the accused never had the intention to marry the victim from the inception of the relationship,” the court noted.
The defence counsel argued that both parties were consenting adults who had remained in a relationship for a prolonged period. It was contended that the First Information Report (FIR) lacked material to show any fraudulent intent at the start of the relationship, and that the matter was, at best, a case of a failed relationship rather than a criminal act.
While the state government and the complainant’s counsel opposed the petition, arguing that the intent of the accused could only be determined during a trial, the court held that the repeated nature of physical intimacy over a long duration pointed towards a consensual relationship rather than initial deception.
The court further remarked that allowing the criminal proceedings to continue without a sound legal foundation would amount to the “harassment of the accused”. Consequently, it quashed the chargesheet dated July 22, 2023, and all subsequent proceedings against Suraj Bora.
Welcoming the verdict, Dehradun Senior Advocate Sanjay Chawla noted a rising trend in such cases.
“In recent years, we have seen an increase in cases where failed relationships are brought under the ambit of rape once the bond breaks. In today’s changing social environment, adult men and women are well aware of the nature of their relationships and can distinguish between a genuine promise and forced intimacy,” he said.