JABALPUR: Madhya Pradesh high court has ruled that a married woman cannot claim that her consent for physical relations with another man was obtained under a false promise of marriage.
Justice Maninder S Bhatti quashed a rape case against a man who was booked on the complaint of a married woman last year. The court’s decision came after the accused, Virendra Yadav of Chhatarpur, filed a petition challenging the allegations.
Yadav’s petition argues that the woman’s claim of rape was not valid, as she was already married and had willingly engaged in a physical relationship with him. Yadav’s counsel contended that the woman’s consent could not be deemed as obtained through “misconception of facts” as she was well aware of the nature of their relationship.
High court took into account the complainant’s own statement in the FIR, where she described having been in a relationship with the petitioner for three months. She also mentioned that the petitioner would visit her house whenever her husband was away, and they would engage in consensual physical relations. The court observed that there was no allegation of coercion or force by the petitioner in their relationship.
The complainant’s claim that the petitioner had promised to divorce his wife and marry her was noted in the FIR, but the court found no direct indication that the woman was persuaded under false pretenses to engage in sexual relations with the petitioner.
Based on these observations, Justice Bhatti ruled that the woman’s consent was not obtained through deceit, and the FIR lodged against Yadav was quashed. The court ordered the cancellation of the rape case, and the petitioner was acquitted. Advocate Shreyas Pandit represented the petitioner during the legal proceedings.