Consensual Sex Between Live-in Partners Not Rape if Man Fails to Marry : SC

Mumbai : On Wednesday the Supreme Court mentioned that the consensual sex between live-in-partners dose not relate to rape after the relationship ends even if the couple does not get married due to any reasons.

In a recent verdict bench of Justices A K Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer said, “Thus, there is a clear distinction between rape and consensual sex. The court, in such cases, must very carefully examine whether the complainant had actually wanted to marry the victim or had mala fide motives and had made a false promise to this effect only to satisfy his lust, as the later falls within the ambit of cheating or deception.”

“The accused has not made the promise with the sole intention to seduce the prosecutrix (woman) to indulge in sexual acts, such an act would not amount to rape,” the bench added.

SCsaid this while revoking an FIR lodged by a Maharashtra-based nurse against a doctor, who was in a live-in- relationship “for quite some time”.

Asper the FIR filed, the woman, a widow, had fallen in love with the doctor and had started living together.

“There may be a case where the prosecutrix agrees to have sexual intercourse on account of her love and passion for the accused and not solely on account of the misconception created by accused, or where an accused, on account of circumstances which he could not have foreseen or which were beyond his control, was unable to marry her despite having every intention to do. Such cases must be treated differently,” the bench said.

The bench said if the man has any secret intentions, then it was a clear case of rape.

“The acknowledged consensual physical relationship between the parties would not constitute an offence under section 376 (rape) of the IPC,” the bench added.

Mentioning the facts of the case, the court said that they were living together for quite some time and when the woman came to now that the man is already married to someone else, she lodged the complaint.

“We are of the view that, even if the allegations made in the complaint are taken at their face value and accepted in their entirety, they do not make out a case against the appellant (doctor),” the bench said.

The man had tackled the top court against the verdict of the Bombay High Court which had released his appeal cancelling the FIR lodged against him.