New Delhi, Oct. 30: The Supreme Court on Friday cautioned against the growing tendency to turn failed relationships into criminal cases, observing that consensual physical intimacy cannot retrospectively be termed rape merely because a relationship has broken down.
A bench comprising Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice R. Mahadevan made the observation while discharging Kerala resident Santosh Kumar N.P. accused of rape and cheating,
The court drew a distinction between consent secured through deliberate deception and a consensual relationship which subsequently fails, holding that intimacy during the subsistence of a relationship cannot later be criminalised merely because the parties have fallen apart.
“Physical intimacy that occurred during the currency of a functioning relationship cannot be retrospectively branded as an act of rape merely because the relationship soured and no longer subsists,” the bench observed.
It also questioned whether a person’s decision to withdraw from a relationship could, by itself, amount to deceit or fraud. “Can it be said that the man has no right to withdraw from the relationship? Can the decision be termed as deceit or fraud? Clearly not,” the court said.
Emphasising the seriousness of a rape charge, the Court said the offence must remain confined to cases involving genuine sexual violence, coercion or manipulation of consent and should not be invoked merely because a consensual relationship has ended.
“When every consensual relationship which sours is converted into an accusation of rape, it dilutes the gravity of the offence alleged,” the court said.
The case arose from allegations that Kumar had concealed an earlier marriage before marrying the complainant and entering into physical relations with her on the basis of consent allegedly obtained through fraud.
He had approached the Supreme Court after the Kerala High Court declined to discharge him and refused to quash the criminal proceedings.
Pramod kumar is a Senior Journalist, Covering Supreem Court of India
