Giving consensual relation colour of rape calls for condemnation: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Monday cautioned against “misuse of the criminal justice machinery” to give consensual physical relations the colour of rape, saying it “trivialises the seriousness of the offence” and “inflicts upon the accused indelible stigma and grave injustice”.

Quashing the rape case against a lawyer accused of rape by his woman client, a bench of Justice B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan said, “this Court has, on numerous occasions, taken note of the disquieting tendency wherein failed or broken relationships are given the colour of criminality. The offence of rape, being of the gravest kind, must be invoked only in cases where there exists genuine sexual violence, coercion, or absence of free consent. To convert every sour relationship into an offence of rape not only trivialises the seriousness of the offence but also inflicts upon the accused…grave injustice. Such instances transcend the realm of mere personal discord. The misuse of the criminal justice machinery in this regard is a matter of profound concern and calls for condemnation.”

As per the prosecution case, the woman had approached the advocate to seek maintenance from her estranged husband. They got close and the woman became pregnant in September 2022 but aborted it with his consent. Thereafter, the woman terminated her pregnancy twice and the lawyer refused to marry her and issued threats to her life if the matter was made public.

The accused advocate claimed they had a consensual relation and that it was after he refused to pay a sum of Rs 1.5 lakh demanded by her that she lodged a case against him.

Incidentally, the bench, in another case last week, had slammed a woman advocate who accused her married client of rape on promise of marriage, asking her “why did you get into this mess” and telling her “you should maintain professional kind of relationship with clients”.