Quitting mutual relationship no ground to accuse rape: Supreme Court
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday observed that having a relationship with a man willingly for some time and the man stopping it serves no ground to accuse him of rape.
The court, while hearing a plea that challenged a high court order which rejected a man's anticipatory bail on a case filed by a woman accusing him of rape, said that making rape claims at such a juncture is not justifiable.
The Supreme Court observed that the young man and the young woman had been in a relationship for four years and the young woman was 21 years old when the relationship started. The facts say that the young woman continued the relationship as per her own interest.
"Now the relationship is broken. That is not a ground for a charge of repeated rape," the Supreme Court observed. But the court added that these were only observations for the grant of anticipatory bail and would not affect the investigation of the case.
The woman lodged the complaint that the man started the relationship promising to marry her, but he discontinued the relationship after four years and a child. The Rajasthan High Court had declined the man's anticipatory bail plea, which the Supreme Court bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Vikram Nath quashed on Thursday.