The Supreme Court on Tuesday, in an alleged case of rape and cheating, flagged the “worrying trend” where long-term consensual relationships, upon turning sour, are sought to be criminalised by invoking penal laws.
A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and N Kotiswar Singh delivered its verdict on an appeal filed by a man, who had challenged a February 2018 order of the Bombay High Court which dismissed his plea seeking quashing of an FIR against him in Navi Mumbai.
The woman had alleged that the man had repeatedly exploited her with false promises of marriage.
The bench said, “In our opinion, the longer the duration of the physical relationship between the partners without protest and insistence by the female partner for marriage would be indicative of a consensual relationship rather than a relationship based on false promise of marriage by the male partner and thus, based on misconception of fact” “We are dealing with human relationships and psychology which are dynamic and permeated,” SC said.
