High Court: consensual sexual relationship cannot be termed as rape

High Court: The Karnataka High Court has ruled that a consensual sexual relationship between two adults cannot be criminalized as rape. The court stated that a long-standing consensual relationship that later ends in disagreement cannot be converted into a criminal accusation of sexual assault.

The bench of Justice M. Nagaprasanna gave this ruling while quashing a rape case and related charge sheet filed against a police constable, Fakirappa Hatti. The woman complainant, who was already married and had three children, had accused the constable of sexually assaulting her on the pretext of marriage.

After examining the evidence, the court noted that the accused and the complainant had shared an intimate and continuous relationship for nearly three years. The relationship, the court observed, was mutual and born out of affection and consent. Referring to previous Supreme Court judgments, the bench pointed out that a breach of a promise to marry, especially when the act is consensual, does not amount to rape.

The High Court emphasized that since the complainant was already married with three children, her allegation that the accused failed to marry her lacked legal and moral standing. Continuing the criminal proceedings in such a case, the court observed, would amount to misuse of judicial process.

The background of the case revealed that the two came into contact after the complainant approached the police station regarding a rent dispute. The constable, who was serving at the same station, had taken her number, and the two gradually developed a close relationship. Their relationship reportedly continued for three years before differences arose, leading the woman to file a private complaint before a magistrate’s court.

Following her complaint, the Mahadevapura police registered an FIR under Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code and filed a charge sheet against the constable. The accused then approached the High Court seeking to quash the proceedings.

The High Court finally ruled that consensual intimacy between two adults cannot be labelled as rape merely because the relationship ended or one party withdrew from it. The order stands as another judicial reaffirmation that criminal law cannot be invoked in cases of failed consensual relationships.

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