Prayagraj, May 26 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has said that courts are witnessing a "growing trend" of consensual relationships turning sour into criminal prosecutions for rape and warned against trivialising the crime.
With the remark, the court quashed criminal proceedings against a Gorakhpur man accused of rape on the false promise of marriage.
The court said that the misuse of criminal law in such cases is a matter of "profound concern" and warned against trivialising rape.
Justice Vivek Kumar Singh, in his order on May 20, allowed an application filed by Sanjay, alias Sanjay Kashyap, under Section 528 BNSS seeking quashing of the chargesheet and entire proceedings in a rape case filed at the Pipraich Police Station of Gorakhpur.
The high court held that in the case at hand, "consensual relationships going on for a prolonged period, upon turning sour, had been sought to be criminalised by invoking criminal jurisprudence" and continuation of such prosecution would have amounted to "gross misuse of criminal jurisdiction."
It said that every failed promise of marriage cannot be treated as rape unless it is shown that the accused never intended to marry the woman from the inception of the relationship.
According to the FIR lodged on March 30, 2024, the complainant alleged that she had met the accused at a wedding about a year earlier. She said that the accused gifted her a mobile phone and later promised marriage in front of her family members.
The woman claimed that they developed intimacy after the promise of marriage, but the man later began avoiding the issue, ultimately refusing to marry her.