Consensual Affair With Married Woman on False Promise of Marriage Not Rape : Punjab & Haryana HC

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has set aside the conviction of a man sentenced to nine years in prison for rape on the basis of a married woman's complaint.

Justice Shalini Nagpal held that consensual sexual relations with a married woman, even on a false promise of marriage, cannot amount to rape under Section 376 IPC.

The court observed that the prosecutrix, a mother of two, was in a consensual relationship for over two years and could not have been "induced" into intimacy.

The case was found to be an instance of immorality, not criminality and acquitted the accused.