Consensual Relationship Cannot Be Treated as Rape: Kerala HC

• Kerala High Court says consensual intimacy cannot be labelled rape after a breakup.
• Court notes deception must exist from the beginning to invoke rape on false promise of marriage.
• Observes relationship began when complainant was married, weakening claim.
• Quashes all proceedings under IPC Sections 376, 493, and 496.

GG News Bureau
Kochi, 18th Nov: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday ruled that a consensual relationship cannot later be construed as rape merely because the man ends the relationship or marries someone else. Justice G Girish, while delivering the judgment, said that seeking “greener pastures” in marriage does not retrospectively turn a previously consensual relationship into an offence.

The court was hearing a petition filed by a man booked under Sections 376 (rape), 493 (cohabitation by deceit) and 496 (fraudulent marriage ceremony) of the Indian Penal Code. The complainant alleged that the accused had been in a long-term relationship with her since 2009, promising marriage, but eventually married another woman in 2014.

According to the prosecution, the relationship began when the complainant was still legally married and a mother of two. After her husband passed away in 2013, the accused began living with her, and during this period, he allegedly tied a knot on her gold chain in a private symbolic ritual that she believed amounted to marriage.

However, the court observed that the intimacy shared between them over the years was clearly consensual and not a result of a fraudulent promise. It noted that to establish rape on the basis of a false promise of marriage, it must be shown that the man had no intention to marry from the very beginning and used the promise solely to exploit the woman sexually.

The bench further pointed out that since the woman was legally married when the relationship started, her claim of having been misled into believing she would be lawfully married to the accused lacked legal foundation.

Referring to multiple Supreme Court precedents, the court reiterated that consensual intimacy based on emotional involvement or future expectations does not constitute rape unless deception is proven from the outset.

On the charges under IPC Sections 493 and 496, the court clarified that such cases can proceed only if the aggrieved person files a formal complaint—something that had not occurred in this instance.

The High Court therefore quashed all criminal proceedings against the accused.