Orissa High Court Quashes Rape Case, Citing Consent and Feminist Philosophy

The court ruled that a failed nine-year relationship does not constitute a crime, emphasizing women's sexual autonomy and rejecting the conflation of intimacy with marriage.

• The Orissa High Court dismissed rape charges against a police sub-inspector accused by his former partner of false promises of marriage.
• Justice Sanjeeb Panigrahi highlighted that the relationship, lasting nearly nine years, was voluntary and lacked evidence of coercion or deception at its inception.
• The court emphasized the need to disentangle sex and marriage, rejecting the presumption that intimacy implies a commitment to marry.
• The judgment drew on feminist philosophy, including Simone de Beauvoir’s work, to challenge patriarchal norms linking female sexual agency to marriage.
• The court ruled that personal grievances from a failed relationship cannot be transformed into criminal allegations of rape or deception.

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