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Orissa High Court on Friday asserted that a consensual physical relationship cannot be considered rape if the promise of marriage could not be materialised for some reasons. Justice R K Pattanaik quashed the charge of rape faced by a Bhubaneswar-based man. According to reports, the man was facing allegations which were brought by a woman who is a friend of the petitioner and is in a matrimonial dispute with her husband for five years.
What did the court say?
Justice R K Pattanaik further said that other allegations against the petitioner such as cheating are left open for investigation. “There is a subtle difference between a breach of promise which is made in good faith but subsequently could not be fulfilled, and a false promise to marry.
“In the former case, for any such sexual intimacy, an offence under Section 376 IPC is not made out, whereas, in the latter, it is, since the same is based on the premise that the promise of marriage was false or fake from the very beginning,” the high court order of July 3 read.
Supreme Court on consensual sex and physical relationship
The Supreme Court had earlier stated of two people were in a physical relationship on an assurance of marriage, which failed to materialise due to some reasons, cannot be called rape.
“A sour relationship, if initially started and developed genuinely with friendship, should not always be branded as a product of mistrust, and the male partner should never be accused of rape,” it said in connection with the case.
(with inputs from PTI)
