But is it rape? Understanding the law that criminalises sex based on a false promise to marry

They met in 2017 over a phone conversation. She was then working at a call centre. They met a few times and in January 2019 began a sexual relationship. She now says it was forced and he had threatened her. In September she filed a police complaint accusing him of rape. He filed a petition in the Delhi high court to have the complaint quashed. Nope, said the court. He came to the Supreme Court.

This week, a two-judge bench of justices BV Nagarathna and N Kotiswar Singh ruled that a consensual relationship which doesn’t end in marriage cannot be given a criminal colour. It ordered the police complaint to be quashed.

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