Overview
- The High Court allowed a Section 482 CrPC petition and quashed the FIR, charge sheet and all proceedings under Section 376 IPC on July 16.
- The court said the record, including statements under Sections 161 and 164 CrPC, showed the parties met on the Tinder app, met voluntarily and entered a physical relationship.
- The complainant had alleged repeated promises to marry and filed the FIR after learning on Instagram that the man was engaged to another woman.
- The bench held that a consensual adult relationship that later turns sour does not by itself establish rape on the false pretext of marriage and that continuing the prosecution would amount to an abuse of process.
- The ruling signals tighter judicial gatekeeping against using criminal law for ordinary relationship disputes while leaving open how lower courts will apply the decision in other consent and promise-of-marriage cases.