The New Indian Express ·
Seven year consensual sex not rape over refusal to marry: Jharkhand HC
RANCHI: The Jharkhand High Court has held that a consensual sexual relationship between two adults spanning over seven years cannot be treated as rape on the ground of a false marriage promise unless it is established that the man had no intention of marrying the woman from the beginning.
Hearing a criminal miscellaneous plea, a bench of Justice Anil Kumar Choudhary made the observation while quashing the criminal proceedings, including the FIR and cognisance order passed by the Giridih chief judicial magistrate, against the petitioner accused of committing rape under Section 376(2)(n) of the IPC.
The court said in the absence of material showing that the promise of marriage was false from the outset, a prolonged consensual relationship between two adults would not, by itself, constitute rape on that ground.