Certainly, there is a difference between rape and consensual sex between live-in partners. But the difference is too slim, that sometimes even court finds it hard to decide who is right. But today, men and women both take advantage of law for their personal benefits. Which is why it has become hard for the courts to give justice.
Though, not anymore. The supreme court recently announced that the case of consensual sex between live-in partners won’t be treated as a criminal offense.
In case, the man fails to marry the partner due to circumstances beyond his control, after the end of their relationship, the case won’t be registered as a rape case or the case of a false promise to marry.
What did Supreme Court Actually Say?
A bench of justice which included AK Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer invoked consensual sex between live-in partners as a rape, after the end of their relationship.
Which simply means a woman can no longer initiate the rape proceeding if the man fails to marry the woman after the end of their relationship.
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“There is a clear distinction between rape and consensual sex. The court, in such cases, must very carefully examine whether the accused had actually wanted to marry the victim or had mala fide motives and had made a false promise to this effect only to satisfy his lust, as the latter falls within the ambit of cheating or deception. There is also a distinction between mere breach of promise and not fulfilling a false promise. If the accused has not made the promise with the sole intention to seduce the prosecutrix to indulge in sexual acts, such an act would not amount to rape,” the court said.
“There may be a case where prosecutrix agrees to have sexual intercourse on account of her love and passion for the accused and not solely on the account of misconception created by accused, or where an accused, on account of circumstances which he could not have foreseen or which were beyond his control, was unable to marry her despite having every intention to do so. Such cases must be treated differently.” the court said.
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How did the Supreme Court get to this decision?
It all began, with the case of a false rape accusation on a government doctor in Maharashtra. The nurse who worked for him had logged the complaint. When this case reached the Supreme Court, the investigation took a different turn. They found that when the doctor got married to another woman, the nurse got furious.
It was only then she filed the rape case. In her complaint, allegedly she said, that after falling in love, they both were in a live-in relationship. They had sexual intercourse, as he promised to marry her. After examining the lodged complaint carefully, the bench found out that the truth.
The woman herself admitted that she had fallen in love with the doctor. It was her who initiated the live-in relation as she was a widow and needed a companion. This sparked the debate and the Apex court invoked consensual sex between live-in partners as a rape.
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In Conclusion:
There have been already many cases of alleged rape cases. Most of them occur when a woman tries to accuse the man of alleged rape. But the real reason behind it is her own personal vendetta. However, now that the Supreme Court has ruled out any such possibility, it certainly will bring down the number of false rape cases.
Maybe then, the real rape cases will be solved and the perverted culprits will be sent behind bars.
