Allahabad High Court Warns Against Misuse of Rape Laws in Failed Relationship Cases
By Rajesh Pandey
The Allahabad High Court has expressed concern over what it described as a growing trend of failed consensual relationships being turned into criminal rape cases.
While making the observation, the court quashed criminal proceedings against a man from Gorakhpur who had been accused of rape on the alleged false promise of marriage.
The court noted that the increasing misuse of criminal law in such matters is a serious issue and cautioned against diluting the gravity of rape allegations.
It was observed that converting every broken relationship into a criminal prosecution not only misuses legal provisions but also risks trivialising a grave offence.
The order was passed by Justice Vivek Kumar Singh while hearing a petition filed by Sanjay alias Sanjay Kashyap under Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), formerly Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
The petitioner had sought the quashing of the charge sheet, cognisance order, and all proceedings related to the rape case registered at Pipraich police station in Gorakhpur.
In its ruling, the court observed that the relationship between the complainant and the accused had continued consensually over a considerable period before eventually deteriorating.
According to the court, criminal law appeared to have been invoked only after the relationship turned bitter, and allowing the prosecution to continue would amount to a misuse of criminal jurisdiction.
In the judgment dated May 20, the high court clarified that every failed promise of marriage cannot automatically be treated as rape.
The court stressed that such allegations can only stand if it is clearly established that the accused never genuinely intended to marry the woman from the very beginning of the relationship.
According to the FIR filed on March 30, 2024, the complainant stated that she first met the accused during a wedding function about a year earlier.
She alleged that the accused gifted her a mobile phone and later promised to marry her in the presence of her family members.
The woman further claimed that the two became physically intimate after the promise of marriage.
However, over time, the accused allegedly began avoiding discussions about marriage and eventually refused to marry her, leading to the criminal complaint being filed against him.
