A division bench of Justices AS Gadkari and PD Naik of the Bombay High Court refused to reject the Rape case against T-Series owner, Bhushan Kumar. A case of rape cannot be cancelled merely because the victim granted her consent to do so, the Bombay High Court said.

In the said matter, Bhushan Kumar filed the petition seeking for the FIR to be cancelled on the ground that the victim took back her complaint and consented for the same to be set aside. 

"Merely because the parties are consenting does not mean an FIR under section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code should be quashed. We have to see the contents of the FIR, the statements recorded to see if the crime was heinous or not. The relationship (in this case) from the contents does not seem consensual," the court said.

Counsel for the Petitioner, Advocate Niranjan Mundargi submitted that the FIR was registered in July 2021 for an incident that was allegedly happening since 2017.

He said that a B-summary report (false case or no case made out against the accused) had been filed by the police before the concerned magistrate's court.

A local politician Mallikarjun Pujari filed a protest petition against such B-summary, claiming he had helped the woman register the FIR, however, the woman had granted her consent to close the proceedings.

The magistrate's court rejected the police's report in April 2022.

"Contents of the consent affidavit are not sufficient to quash FIR. Generally, under section 376, FIR can be quashed with the consent of the complainant. But then that is after the FIR or the affidavit shows that there was a consensual relationship. Here the complainant is only saying she doesn't want to proceed with the case due to 'circumstantial misunderstanding'," the court said.

The next date for the hearing is on 2nd July, 2023.