Supreme Court acquits man, says consensual relationship ending in breakup is not rape

The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that physical relations between an adult man and woman, formed with mutual consent, cannot be treated as rape after a breakup. The case involved an allegation of sexual relations on a promise of marriage. The court discharged a man of the charges.

The ruling was delivered by a bench of Justice B. V. Nagarathna and Justice R. Mahadevan. The bench said a relationship formed in love and with mutual consent cannot be made a crime after a breakup. It is wrong, it said, to turn every broken relationship into a rape case.

The bench clarified, however, that the matter would be different if consent had been obtained through a false promise of marriage from the very start, or through deceit. In such cases, it is necessary to examine whether the consent was actually founded on deception.

The court said it is not right to register a criminal case against a man merely because he decided to end a relationship. No one can be forced to stay in a relationship by the threat of a rape charge.

According to the bench, the law on rape should not be misused to harass someone or to take revenge. There is a difference between a relationship formed with mutual consent and one based on deceit or coercion from the beginning.

The court also said the correct legal decision in every case must be taken only after examining the truth of the allegations and the evidence available. If evidence of sexual violence, coercion or deceit is found, strict legal action should be taken against the guilty.

In this case, the allegation was that a man had established physical relations on a promise of marriage. The Supreme Court discharged him of the charges on Friday. The essence of the ruling is that a relationship formed in love and with consent does not become a rape case merely because it has broken down, but the position is different if there was deceit from the start.