Breach of promise to marry not amounts to Rape

In a recent judgment, the Delhi High Court has held that if two have adults have had acts of consensual sex, then this cannot be said that they were induced by the promise to marry merely on the assertion that the other person had expressed their intention to get married.

In these types of cases mostly the men get trapped. It gives the false inducement of the other party, especially the men in these types of case, stating that he has committed the offence of rape under Section 375 of Indian Penal Code, 1860.

The brief facts of the case are:

After some time, he again raped her in a hotel room. As per her statement, he refused to marry her. P lodged an FIR in the police station stating that the accused has committed rape.

The time difference between when the accused promised her for marriage to the first incident of alleged rape is two years and six months, therefore, the P’s testimony that she had objected to the accused touching her obscenely but had yielded on his promising marriage, was difficult to accept.

The Court thus held that the consent of P for physical relationship was not taken by inducing her. The Court further stated that two consenting adults involving in a physical relationship is not an offence. Moreover, the abandoning of the partner is also not a crime under the Indian Penal Code.

The Court thus went on to remark that inducement to have a physical relationship by promising marriage could not be held as an inducement for engaging in sex over an indefinite period of time.

It is difficult to accept that the physical relationship was only built merely on the assertion of the marriage by the other party.