RANCHI: The Jharkhand High Court has held that a consensual sexual relationship between two adults spanning over seven years cannot be treated as rape on the ground of a false marriage promise unless it is established that the man had no intention of marrying the woman from the beginning.
Hearing a criminal miscellaneous plea, a bench of Justice Anil Kumar Choudhary made the observation while quashing the criminal proceedings, including the FIR and cognisance order passed by the Giridih chief judicial magistrate, against the petitioner accused of committing rape under Section 376(2)(n) of the IPC.
The court said in the absence of material showing that the promise of marriage was false from the outset, a prolonged consensual relationship between two adults would not, by itself, constitute rape on that ground.
According to the FIR, the young woman and the petitioner met during a wedding ceremony in 2016, after which a relationship developed between them. The complainant alleged that the accused engaged in sexual relations with her—first in Giridih and later at a hotel in Ranchi—under the pretext of marriage.
After being in a relationship for nearly seven years, the accused switched off his phone in April 2023, and his family refused to go ahead with the marriage. Based on the woman’s complaint, police registered a case and filed a chargesheet under section 376 (rape). The petitioner then moved the HC seeking quashing of the criminal proceedings against him, including the FIR and cognisance order.
While hearing the matter, the HC cited a Supreme Court judgment, Mahesh Damu Khare vs State of Maharashtra, stating that a promise of marriage qualifies as a “false promise” only if the individual had no intention of fulfilling it at the time the promise was made.
“Under such circumstances, this court has no hesitation in holding that the allegations made by the informant, even if are considered to be true, at the most the same discloses a case of consensual physical relationship between the parties and is insufficient to constitute the offence punishable under Section 376 (2)(n) of the IPC.”
