Acquitting a man facing rape charges, the Kerala High Court on Thursday said that a man’s promise to marry an already married woman and subsequent physical relations between them will not attract provisions of rape under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The single bench of justice Kausar Edappagath quashed a rape case filed by police in Kollam district in 2018 and observed that if a married woman had voluntarily had sex with the man knowing well that she cannot enter into a lawful marriage with him, it cannot amount to rape.
The petitioner said in her petition that the accused sexually assaulted the petitioner several times in Australia and in the country under a false promise of marriage. She said that she consented for sexual relationship after repeated promise of marriage by the accused. Though married, the woman is separated from her husband and moved her papers for divorce.
Going by the detailed statement of the petitioner, the court said that it was evident that sexual relations were consensual in nature. It said the promise of marriage will not stand in the case since the woman is married and she knew it well that a legal marriage will not be possible under the law.
Quashing the case, the court said, “Such an unenforceable and illegal promise cannot be a basis for the prosecution under section 376 of the IPC. There is no case for the accused that the sex they had was after inducing a belief of lawful marriage. There are no ingredients to attract the offence of cheating.”
In a similar case last month, the same bench had given a verdict that the rape on false promises to marry will not stand if the woman knew that the man was already married and she continued physical relations with him. The court had quashed the case against a 33-year-old man hailing from the state capital.
