Bombay High Court in India ruled that when two mature individuals are in a relationship and the relationship does not culminate in marriage, one of them cannot allege rape later when the relationship turns sour. The ruling was made in a case where a 26-year-old woman accused a man of having a physical relationship with her by making false promises of marriage after they met through social media.
The man pleaded innocence and sought to be discharged from the case. The court granted his plea and noted that the two were in a relationship for eight years, which included both consensual and forcible physical intimacy, but merely because the relationship turned sour, it cannot be inferred that the physical relationship on every occasion was against the woman’s will. According to the Bombay High Court’s ruling, the complainant in the case was a major at the time when the relationship was established, meaning that she was legally considered an adult and capable of understanding the consequences of her actions. The court noted that the complainant herself admitted that the relationship was consensual on some occasions but was also forcible at times. Additionally, the court stated that the fact that the relationship had continued for a considerable length of time did not necessarily mean that the sexual relationship was established only on the promise of marriage on every occasion.
