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‘Law doesn’t criminalise heartbreak’: Karnataka HC quashes case against man over broken promise of marriage
The Karnataka High Court also noted that the relationship from December 2022 to June 2024 was consensual and took place entirely in Ireland.
The man and the complainant met in 2021 while pursuing their Master’s degrees at the National University of Ireland. (File Photo)
The Karnataka High Court recently quashed criminal proceedings against a man accused of sexual assault on the pretext of a promise of marriage, observing that “law does not criminalise heartbreak.”
Justice M Nagaprasanna, in an order dated March 4, quashed the case against a man who was charged under Sections 69 (sexual intercourse by employing deceitful means) and 115(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
“If every broken relationship were to be clothed in the garb of criminality, the courts would transform into a forum of personal vendetta, rather than forums of justice.”
Arguments in court
The man and the complainant met in 2021 while pursuing their Master’s degrees at the National University of Ireland. They began living together in December 2022, sharing companionship as consenting adults for nearly two years. The relationship reportedly soured after the man learned the complainant was married with a seven-year-old son.
On October 19, 2024, the complainant returned to India and lodged a complaint at a Women’s Police Station in Mangalore, alleging that the man had engaged in sexual relations under a false promise of marriage.
Senior Advocate Vikram Huilgol, representing the man, argued that the relationship had been entirely consensual and not based on any promise of marriage. He also said the complaint had cost his client his job in Ireland after the woman sent an email to the company, and he was struggling to secure employment due to the allegations.
Appearing for the complainant, Advocate Prameswarappa C contended that the sexual relationship between the man and his client was based on a promise of marriage, which was allegedly broken after the man spoke to his family.
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Additional State Public Prosecutor B N Jagadeesha submitted that the matter is still at the investigation stage, and urged that the probe be permitted.
What the court said
Justice Nagaprasanna noted that the relationship from December 2022 to June 2024 was consensual and took place entirely in Ireland. “The complaint read in its entirety does not narrate coercion, deception at inception or force. It speaks of companionship, cohabitation, shared domesticity, and consensual intimacy extending over two years.”
“The intimacy occurred in Ireland, the cohabitation occurred in Ireland, the shared life occurred in Ireland. What has followed is not an allegation of violence, but an allegation of betrayal. Therefore, it is not a case of having sexual intercourse on deceit from the inception.”
“The investigation in such cases must not be permitted to commence or continue, as the complaint herein, even if it is accepted in its entirety, does not prima facie disclose such fraudulent intention at inception, for it to become a crime under Section 69 of the BNS.”
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Taking note of the submission by the petitioner that the complainant has moved on, and entered into another relationship, the bench observed, “While such developments are not determinative of guilt or innocence, they underscore the central reality that the subject case is a relationship that ran its course and ended. The criminal law is not designed to be invoked as a salve for emotional rupture.”
Allowing the petition, the bench said, “The facts, even if accepted in toto, disclose nothing beyond a relationship that did not culminate in matrimony. To permit investigation in such circumstances would not advance justice; it would distort it.”
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