Recently, the Supreme Court stated that a relationship may be consensual at the beginning but the same state may not remain so for all time
In a recent legal development, the bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Kumar addressed a significant petition challenging an order passed by the Karnataka High Court.
In this case, Supreme Court was handling a case in which a woman, who is the complainant and a survivor of rape, claimed that the accused had concealed his previous marriage, leading her to marry him and enter into a sexual relationship under false pretenses.
The FIR, accuses the petitioner of multiple offences under the Indian Penal Code, including Sections 342, 354, 366, 376(2)(n), 312, 201, 420, 506, and 509, as well as Sections 66(E), 67, and 67(A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Karnataka High Court dealt with the issue and relying on a judgment of a Division Bench of the same Court in the case of Abdul Sab & Ors. vs. State of Karnataka by Ripponpete Police, rejected the petitioner’s plea.
Supreme Court stated that FIR does not disclose any offence. The allegations cannot be held to be inherently improbable, which is one of the grounds for quashing FIR.
The bench opined that “the allegations do not demonstrate continued consent on the part of the complainant. A relationship may be consensual at the beginning at the beginning but the same state may not remain so for all time to come. Whenever one of the partners shows their unwillingness to continue with such relationship, the character of such relationship at it was when started will not continue to prevail.”
Supreme Court disagreed that the relationship had remained consensual to justify quashing the FIR and also that the complaint lacked the ingredients of the offences alleged.
In view of the above, the bench dismissed the petition.
Case Title: Rajkumar v. The State of Karnataka & Anr.
Bench: Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Kumar.
Case No.: Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No(s). 6279/2023
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