Denied inter-caste marriage, not rape: Calcutta High Court upheld man’s acquittal

The order remarked that the woman in question was 19 years of age at the relevant time and was, hence, capable of understanding the complications and issues surrounding her marriage to the petitioner.

“According to the version of events provided by her, the petitioner had called the respondent on a number given to her by him, to ask him why he had not met her at the place that had been pre-decided by them,” it stated.

Justice Arijit Banerjee underlined the distinction between a false promise made in bad faith from the outset and a genuine promise that is later not fulfilled.

‘False promise’ of marriage

The woman was challenging the trial court judgment that acquitted a man of the charges of rape and cheating. The plea arose from the sessions court’s July 5, 2023 verdict.

The woman stated that she had known the accused since 2006 as he frequently visited relatives in her village. According to her, after she turned 19, the accused began taking her to movies and repeatedly assured her that he would marry her. She alleged that, relying on this promise, she entered into a physical relationship with him since 2011.

She alleged that on September 5, 2012, the accused got intimate with her at her grandparents’ house, after which he avoided marrying her. Efforts by the village panchayat to resolve the dispute failed, and his family allegedly refused the marriage because she belonged to a different caste. She lodged an FIR in 2013, leading to a chargesheet under IPC sections 376 and 417.

The state’s counsel submitted that it is clear that there was a relationship between the appellant and the accused. They used to go out for movies and regularly speak on the phone. It has not been established beyond reasonable doubt or at all that the appellant was deceived into giving consent to a physical relationship with the accused.

Rather, the material on record would indicate that the woman was a consenting party to the physical relationship of her own volition and out of the relationship of love and affection that had developed between her and the accused, it was argued.

Woman left home voluntarily: HC

The high court held that the physical relationship between the appellant and the accused was consensual and the prosecution failed to establish that her consent was obtained through a false promise of marriage.

It observed that to establish offences under IPC sections 376 and 417 in such circumstances, the prosecution must show that the accused had no intention to marry the woman from the very beginning and made the promise solely to sexually exploit her.

The court underlined the distinction between a false promise made in bad faith from the outset and a genuine promise that is subsequently not fulfilled. Mere failure to fulfil a marriage promise does not automatically amount to rape, it stated.

Concluding that the petitioner had left her home voluntarily to get married to the appellant, the court said that the petitioner went to different places and lived with him. “She even proceeded with the respondent to the old bus-stand, to leave for Ambala so that the two of them could get married in the court at Ambala. However, here they were apprehended by the police.”