No rape case when woman knows marriage is unsure
In May, 2019, Justices D Y Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee has quashed rape case filed upon CRPF Officer. Rape case was filed by a woman who was having relationship with Deputy Commandant for last 6 years. They were in meeting each other in various occasions. She filed rape case, when she came to know the man decided to marry another woman. She had also used SC/ST(Prevention of Atrocities) Act in complaint. Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 was used by her to complain against verbal arguments over Whatsapp between both.
Woman had filed case in 2016 complaining she was raped in 2008. She had filed case when she came to know that the man got engaged to another woman in 2014. Bench of justices concluded this can’t be called as rape case, as both continued to be in relationship many years even after knowing relationship wouldn’t conclude in marriage. In this case, woman knew the man since 1998. They had relationships more than a decade. Their plan to get married failed few times due to disputable different casts of both.
“Where the promise to marry is false and the intention of the maker at the time of making the promise itself was not to abide by it but to deceive the woman to convince her to engage in sexual relations, there is a misconception of fact that vitiates the woman’s consent. On the other hand, a breach of a promise cannot be said to be a false promise. To establish a false promise, the maker of the promise should have had no intention of upholding his word at the time of giving it,” the court said.
Acts:
IPC 375- Rape
SC/ST(Prevention of Atrocities) Act
