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Supreme Court Quashes Rape FIR Against Lawyer, Warns Against Criminalising Failed Relationships

The ruling clarifies that rape charges based on a promise of marriage require credible proof of bad faith at the outset.

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The Supreme Court stressed that the law must be invoked only where genuine sexual violence or lack of free consent is evident. (HT)
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Overview

  • The bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan set aside the Bombay High Court’s March order and quashed the FIR and charge sheet filed in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.
  • The court held the long-term relationship from March 2022 to May 2024 was consensual and did not meet the threshold for ‘repeated rape’ under Section 376(2)(n) IPC.
  • The judgment said giving a failed or acrimonious relationship the colour of rape trivialises the offence and amounts to misuse of the criminal justice machinery.
  • The bench noted the woman, an adult who met the advocate as a client, continued the relationship voluntarily, and the FIR lacked concrete allegations of coercion, deceit or inducement.
  • The court reaffirmed that consent may be vitiated where a marriage promise is proven false from inception, but such claims must rest on credible evidence rather than unsubstantiated assertions.