Woman jailed for filing false rape case: ‘Allowing every failed relationship into a criminal case contrary to spirit and object of rape laws’

Earlier this year, the woman had filed a rape and assault case against the man, alleging that she was in a relationship with him for the past five years, and he conviced her to have sexual relations on the pretext of marriage. She alleged that on May 30, when she went to his house, the man’s mother and brother assaulted and threatened her. Based on her complaint, a case invoking rape and provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was registered, and the man was arrested.

However, during the probe, police found that the two were in a consensual relationship for several years and after the man got married in February, she started to pressure him to break his marriage. Police found that even after the man got married to another woman, she continued to visit his house. Also, after she filed the complaint of rape and assault againt him and his family members, she refused to undergo medical examination and no injuries were recorded.

After reviewing the material evidence, the court found no prima facie evidence of rape or any offence under the SC/ST Act against the woman, the prosecution said. “The court concluded that the woman had misused the law to falsely implicate the man and his family, and that she had trespassed into his house with an intent to affect his married life,” Mishra said.

While convicting the woman, the court noted that the criminal justice system is increasingly burdened with rape cases that arise from failed consensual relationships. “Many such cases come before the courts where the parties, being adults, have voluntarily engaged in sexual relations over a span of time. And when the relationship eventually fails, whether due to incompatibility or other differences, allegations of rape are pressed,” the court observed.

The court said that allowing every failed relationship to be converted into a criminal prosecution would be “contrary not only to the constitutional vision of justice, but also to the very spirit and object of the law of sexual offences”.

The judgment stressed that rape laws are intended to protect the bodily integrity and autonomy of women and to punish those who exploit them by force or by deception which vitiates free consent. “It is not designed to become a tool in disputes where two consenting adults, fully aware of their choices and the attendant consequences, subsequently fall apart,” the court added.

The court went on to say that adults entering intimate relationships must take responsibility for their choices, and that a complainant who continued a relationship despite knowing the petitioner’s marital status cannot later claim she was misled as a matter of law.