‘Consensual Sex in Live-In Relationship Is Not Rape’ Says Supreme Court And We Agree
We live in tricky times. The #MeToo movement brought down some powerful men and of course, in the process possibly took down a couple of innocents. As Ranveer Singh said in a recent interview, this is collateral damage. And while empowering women is important, perhaps, the men could use some shielding too. We welcome this Supreme Court verdict that comes at a good time.
The Supreme Court has held that if two individuals have consensual sex while in a live-in relationship, then rape charges cannot be invoked, if the man fails to marry due to reasons that fall beyond his control.
The statement that was rolled out while passing a verdict on a recent FIR that was lodged against a doctor in Maharashtra by his nurse, who claimed that they both fell in love, lived together, had sex only to find the man marrying another woman.
The justices in the jury stressed upon the big difference there is between rape and consensual sex. Justices A.K. Sikri and S. Abdul Nazeer added in their verdict, “the accused has not made the promise (of marriage) with the sole intention to seduce the prosecutrix (woman) to indulge in sexual acts, such an act would not amount to rape”.
The bench further concluded by saying that, “We are of the view that, even if the allegations made in the complaint are taken at their face value and accepted in their entirety, they do not make out a case against the appellant (doctor),” Such cases could be termed as a case of breach of promise, but definitely not a false promise to marry.
