Long-term consensual affairs cannot be criminalised as rape over false marriage promises: SC

The Supreme Court has flagged the concerning trend of criminalising soured consensual relationships, ruling that a woman in a long-term extramarital affair cannot accuse the man of rape based on an alleged false promise of marriage.

"There is a troubling pattern of consensual relationships turning sour and being criminalised," the court said while quashing a seven-year-old FIR filed by Vanita S. Jadhav against Mahesh Damu Khare in Mumbai, a bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and N. Kotiswar Singh stated.

The court emphasised that complaints of breach of promise to marry must be filed promptly, not after years of a continued physical relationship.


The affair, which began in 2008, involved Khare, a married man, and Jadhav, a widow. Jadhav alleged they had intercourse based on Khare's promise to marry her. Khare’s wife had earlier lodged extortion complaints against Jadhav. In 2017, Jadhav accused Khare of rape.

The court ruled, "When a woman knowingly maintains a physical relationship over a prolonged period, it cannot be definitively said it was solely due to the alleged promise of marriage."