In a case that stirred questions around consent, coercion, and promises of marriage, the Supreme Court has quashed rape charges against a man accused of luring a woman into sex under false pretenses. The Court ruled that the woman’s repeated visits to a hotel with the man—on three separate occasions—reflected voluntary participation, not deception.
The bench, led by Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K. Vinod Chandran, found no credible evidence that the accused had made a false promise of marriage to manipulate consent. Instead, they noted the woman had acknowledged a close relationship with the man and admitted to accompanying him to hotel rooms multiple times, despite claiming mental distress after each encounter.
“The narrative simply doesn’t hold,” the Court observed. “The complainant alleges coercion on three occasions but also admits she went with him willingly to the hotel each time. If she truly believed the first encounter was forced and left her mentally shaken, why return twice more under identical circumstances?”
According to the woman’s allegations, the accused coerced her into sexual intercourse the first time by falsely promising marriage, a promise she claimed was later broken. But the Court pointed out that the supposed promise came after the first encounter—nullifying the claim that her consent was manipulated by deception from the outset.
In a scathing remark on the prosecution’s case, the Court said there was no indication the man ever promised marriage to obtain consent, nor that he held such intent before the physical relationship began.
“The allegation of forceful intercourse on threat and coercion is not believable,” the judgment stated. “Their relationship was consensual and ongoing, and her repeated willingness to meet him in private makes the claim of coercion implausible.”
The Court cited an earlier ruling—Prithvirajan vs. The State—which clarified that false promises of marriage constitute rape only when the intent to deceive exists from the start and the victim’s consent is directly tied to that false promise. In this case, the Court ruled, neither condition was met.
Declaring the trial proceedings an “abuse of the court’s process,” the bench said the case should never have advanced past the High Court. It invoked its powers under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code to end the trial altogether.
The ongoing proceedings in the Sessions Court in Erode have now been officially quashed, with the Supreme Court emphasizing that criminal law cannot be used as a weapon in failed relationships.