A bench of Justices CT Ravikumar and Rajesh Bindal of The Supreme Court quashed a rape case filed by a woman against a man after noting that the woman was already married and the sex was consensual.  

It is noted by the bench that there was no promise of marriage by the accused to the woman and the woman engaged in a consensual relationship breaching her marital commitment.

The bench explained that “It is evident that there was no promise to marry initially … It is not a case where the complainant was of an immature age who could not foresee her welfare and take right decision … She was matured and intelligent enough to understand the consequences of the moral and immoral acts for which she consented during subsistence of her earlier marriage. In fact, it was a case of betraying her husband”.

The complainant woman was a decade older than the accused individual. Their relationship evolved when the woman started residing apart from her husband at that time. However, an initial information report FIR was filed on the day he declined to marry her. The apex court noted that the relationship between them was consensual.

While quashing the rape proceedings, the bench said “Not only the consent of the complainant which is clearly evident but also of the parents and daughter of the complainant as they were living in the same house, where allegedly the appellant and the complainant were having physical relations”.