Karnataka HC: Six years of consensual sex cannot be termed rape

The Karnataka High Court has junked two criminal cases where a woman accused a man of breaking a vow to marry her after engaging in consensual sexual activity for six years. The woman had filed charges against a man from Bengaluru who had been in a relationship with her for six years and then ended their relationship, claiming he had broken his promise to marry her.

According to the woman, the intimacy between them started to fade after December 27, 2019, following six years of voluntary sexual activity. She alleged that this change constituted rape, as the man had broken his promise. However, the high court rejected this argument, reasoning that consensual sexual activity over a period of six years could not be considered rape, as it had been consensual all along until December 27, 2019.

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Justice M Nagaprasanna, who presided over the case, dismissed all charges brought against the man in 2021 by the Indiranagar police in Bengaluru and the women’s police station in Davangere. The court cited a previous decision by the Supreme Court in the Pramod Suryabhan Pawar (Maharashtra) case, emphasizing that further legal action would violate the Supreme Court's guidelines. The court also referred to a case in the Orissa High Court involving a minor victim's consent for sex, which was not considered rape.

The woman, who initiated the legal proceedings, stated that she met the man through Facebook in 2013. They became close due to his cooking skills and proximity. Over the course of six years, they shared meals and engaged in consensual sexual activity while having a beer. All of this happened under the premise of a promised marriage, which he later reneged on.

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Initially, the woman filed a complaint against the man at the Indiranagar Police Station, accusing him of deception and criminal behaviour due to the broken promise. However, this case didn't hold up, and the man was released on bail. Subsequently, she found out his location in Davangere and filed a complaint against him there, this time accusing him of rape and assault, referencing the earlier case. She also implicated another woman in her complaint.

The man challenged the accusations, asserting that the woman had a history of extorting money from wealthy individuals through blackmail and filing such complaints. He highlighted a previous case in which the woman had accused another man of breaking a marriage promise and rape, resulting in his acquittal in 2016, when the woman had turned hostile.