If a man reneges on his promise to marry a woman because his family does not agree, then the crime of rape does not occur.
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court made the remarks while acquitting a 31-year-old man in the case registered against him. A case was registered against this man for allegedly raping a woman on the pretext of marriage.
A single bench of Justice MW Chandwani, in an order passed on January 30, said that a person has merely broken his promise of marriage.
He did not promise marriage to the woman to have physical relations with her. The court said that there is a difference between breaking a promise and not fulfilling a false promise.
In 2019, a 33-year-old woman had lodged an FIR with Nagpur Police. In this she had claimed that she was in a relationship with that person since 2016. He had physical relations with her after promising to marry her.
When the woman came to know that the man was engaged to someone else, she lodged a complaint with the police. In the petition seeking discharge in the case, the man said that he had every intention of marrying the woman.
But she rejected the proposal and told him that she would marry someone else. The petition said that the man’s family had also refused to accept this relationship.
After this he agreed to get engaged to another woman. It said that the complainant had married another man in 2021.
The court said the woman is a mature adult and said the allegations made by her do not indicate that the man’s promise to marry her was false.
The court said there were no facts to prove that since the beginning of the relationship, the man had no intention of marrying the woman and had only made a false promise to have a physical relationship.
It said that he reneged on his promise to marry only because his parents did not agree to their marriage. It cannot be said that the petitioner has committed the crime of rape.