NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court, commenting on marital rape, has said that when a man and a woman live as husband and wife, that act of sexual intercourse between them could not be called rape.
The apex court made the remark while hearing on a petition filed by a man pertaining to the quashing of an FIR against him. The woman alleged that the man had indulged in sexual intercourse on the false promise of marriage.
“Making a false promise to marry is wrong. Even a woman should not promise to marry and then break away. But that does not mean in a prolonged live-in relationship, sexual intercourse would be categorised as rape,” a bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said.
The court stayed the arrest of the man who had been accused of rape by his former partner on the pretext of marriage. According to the FIR, the couple was in a relationship for five years and the man eventually moved on to marry another woman. This had led the woman to slap rape charges against him and accusing him of having sex with her under the pretext of fake marriage promises.
Senior Advocate Vibha Datta Makhija, appearing for the man, termed the woman’s allegations false and alleged that she had done the same to two other men.
Appearing for the woman, advocate Aditya Vashisht told the bench that the man had lived with his client promising marriage. He also said that he had inflicted violence on her by brutally beating her and presented the medical certificate of the injuries before the court.