The Supreme Court of India has expressed concern over the ongoing trend of women filing 'promise rape' cases against male partners when bitterness develops at a stage of consensual sex. This observation was made by the Supreme Court while deciding an appeal. This information is known from the report of the Indian media today on Wednesday.
A bench of Justices BB Nagaratna and N Kotishwar Singh heard an appeal on behalf of a male victim on Tuesday. The female partner filed a rape case against him for the termination of the 9-year relationship based on consent. The court accepted his plea and ordered the dismissal of the case.
After the hearing of the application, the court said that in most of the cases, it can be seen that the two have stayed together for a long time with their consent. But when the relationship goes bad, the female partner tries to 'criminalize' the matter by filing a rape case against the male partner. But the absence of any protest or demand for marriage from the female partner during a long-term physical relationship indicates a 'consensual relationship'.
Emphasizing the distinction between 'consensual relationship' and 'relationship based on false promise of marriage', the court said that apart from the promise of marriage, a woman can have physical relationship with a man for personal reasons or for any other reason. In that case, two contexts arise in the physical relationship. One is a consensual relationship that is not criminal. The other is a relationship based on false promises, which is fraudulent and a punishable offence.
The victim had earlier appealed to the Bombay High Court but it was rejected. He then appealed to the Supreme Court against the High Court verdict. Hearing that appeal, the court ruled in his favor yesterday.
