Justice Bharati Dangre of the Bombay High Court has recently held that the reason that the relationship between man and woman turned sour does not mean that she was raped.

The court said," The prosecutrix is sufficiently of matured age to be conscious of the relationship, both physical and mental, and merely because, the relationship had now turned sour, it cannot be inferred that the physical relationship established with her, on every occasion, was against her will and without her consent. Since the couple used to meet in isolation, with no indication that on every occasion when the physical relationship was established, the promise of marriage was made, when she has unequivocally consented to the physical indulgence, without any grievance being made till she lodged the FIR on 17.02.2016, I do not think that sufficient ground exist to proceed against the Applicant by charging him under Section 376 of the IPC."

The Court quashed rape case against a man after noting that the complainant and the accused were in a relationship for 8 long years and the complaint was lodged in 2016 only after the relationship turned sour and observed that "it can be clearly seen that for prolonged period of 8 years, the relationship between the two continued and it cannot be said that, only because she was under misconception that he is going to marry her, she had consented for sex."

The court said “Two matured persons coming together and investing in a relationship, one cannot be blamed only because the other complained of the act at some point of time when the relationship did not go well and for whatever reason need not ultimately culminate into a marriage”.

Case details:-

REVISION APPLICATION NO.408 OF 2019
XXX .. Applicant
vs.
State of Maharashtra & Anr. ] .. Respondents