Consensual Intimacy During Relationship Can't Be Branded Rape Merely Because It Failed: Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday cautioned against the growing tendency to turn failed relationships into criminal cases, observing that consensual physical intimacy cannot retrospectively be termed rape merely because a relationship has broken down.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan made the observations while discharging a Keralam man, Santosh Kumar N P, from charges of rape and cheating.

Distinguishing between consent obtained through deliberate deception and regret arising from a failed relationship, the bench said that consensual intimacy during a subsisting relationship cannot subsequently be criminalised merely because the parties part ways.

"Physical intimacy that occurred during the currency of a functioning relationship cannot be retrospectively branded as an act of rape merely because the relationship soured and no longer subsists," the Court observed.

Questioning whether a man could be accused of fraud merely for choosing to walk out of a relationship, the bench said, "Can it be said that the man has no right to withdraw from the relationship? Can the decision be termed as deceit or fraud? Clearly not."

The Court cautioned that rape, being a grave offence, must be invoked in cases involving actual sexual violence, coercion or manipulation of consent.

"When every consensual relationship which sours is converted into an accusation of rape, it dilutes the gravity of the offence alleged," it said.

The case arose from allegations that the accused had concealed his earlier marriage before marrying the complainant and establishing physical relations with her on the basis of consent allegedly obtained through fraud. The man had challenged the Kerala High Court's refusal to discharge him and quash the criminal proceedings.