Rape vs Consent: Indian Supreme Court frames 4-step test for High Courts

The Supreme Court of India has said courts must distinguish between rape and consensual sex, emphasising careful assessment of allegations based on false marriage promises.

- BY S VENKAT NARAYAN

There exists a “clear distinction between rape and consensual sex”, the Supreme Court held on Wednesday as it ruled that courts must carefully assess allegations of sexual assault made on the promise of marriage.

If the accused never intended to marry and made a false promise with sexual intentions, it held, such conduct would amount to cheating or deception.

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Sandeep Mehta, while quashing criminal proceedings against a man accused of rape, stressed that false or vexatious complaints not only tarnish a person’s image but also amount to an abuse of judicial process.

“It is by now well settled that summoning any person on the basis of a frivolous or vexatious complaint is something very serious. This would tarnish the image of the person against whom false, frivolous and vexatious allegations are levelled,” the bench observed in its ruling last week.

Laying down guidance for high courts dealing with petitions under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (now Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita), the bench framed a fourstep test to determine whether criminal proceedings should be quashed.