The Supreme Court has thrown out a rape case that it found was less about justice and more about payback.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh struck down a Madhya Pradesh High Court order that had refused to quash proceedings against a municipal employee accused by his colleague of sexual assault on the pretext of marriage.
The judges noted that the complaint surfaced not in the immediate aftermath of the alleged incident but only after the woman received a show-cause notice from her employer—notice that itself followed complaints lodged by the accused about harassment at her hands.
The case had its roots in a five-year friendship between a married municipal computer operator and an assistant revenue inspector. She alleged that he forced himself upon her in March 2023 under the promise of marriage, with sexual relations continuing until April. But the man countered with records showing he had already accused her of threats, abuse, and harassment, even prompting administrative warnings against her conduct.
The timing, the Court found, was telling: the FIR came four months after the alleged assault, and immediately after she faced professional consequences. That, the judges said, raised a “gaping possibility” that the case was an afterthought—“a vehicle for vengeance.”
Reaffirming the Bhajan Lal principles that allow courts to end criminal proceedings instituted with mala fides, the bench also cited recent jurisprudence stressing the need to look beyond an FIR when circumstances suggest misuse of the law.
In this instance, the Court concluded, the prosecution was driven not by the pursuit of justice but by personal retribution. The FIR and the chargesheet now stand quashed.