The Bombay High Court has stated that a lady who is above the age of 18 years and is educated, if she doesn’t says “no” while entering into physical relationship, then at a later period, she can’t claim to be raped if the relationship doesn’t work well. It has to be taken as “consensual”; however, the court also asserted that “society has taboos around s*xual relationships”.
The judgment came in a case in which a man (25) has appealed for a pre-arrest bail. As per this appeal, the man was in a relationship with a 24-yr lady from Goregaon and their relationship has been a year old.
The man made a promise to the lady that he would marry her but after a year, he wasn’t able to fulfill his promise. As they both were in a physical relationship, the lady filed a complaint with the police and charged him with cheating, rape and assault. She claimed that during the course of relationship, the man took her to many hotels where he forcibly made physical relations with her on the basis of the alleged promise of marrying her.
The lady also claimed that the man forced her to go for abortion once and she also used to support the man in monetary terms. As the man was afraid of getting arrested, he went to court.
The lady’s lawyer opposed the appeal and claimed that the lady has been “wronged and physical relationship on false promise of marriage must be considered as rape”.
However the Judge Mridula Bhatkar, cancelled the lady’s appeal saying, “This cannot be considered as rape. You are a major, educated, and you have a choice of saying no. But if you did not say no at the time, then it will be considered as mutual consent. When the woman is educated and mature, she can say no. When she says yes, then it becomes mutual.”
Judge granted a pre-bail to the man but also instructed him against “contacting or harassing the woman or her family members in any manner”.
