Consensual physical relationship between couples who are live in partners will not amount to rape, ruled India’s Apex Court while hearing the plea of a person accused of rape by a woman who was his live-in partner for over two years. The woman had lodged an FIR after the man married another woman. The court in its ruling clarified that if the man fails to marry the woman for circumstances which are beyond his control then his failure to marry wouldn’t amount to rape.
“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," a bench of Justices A K Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer said in a recent verdict.”
The acknowledged consensual physical relationship between the parties would not constitute an offence under section 376 (rape) of the IPC, the bench said.
