The Odisha High Court made an observation regarding the law which states that act of sexual intercourse on false promise to marry amounts to rape and stated that it does appear to be erroneous.
The bench made this observation while declining the bail application of a person who is accused of developing a physical relationship with the victim on the false pretext of marrying her.
The bench, however, stated that the victim’s plight and chances that the accused might use this as a measure to tarnish the image of the victim might be taken into consideration before deciding the question of bail to the accused.
The bench stated that for such situations, there is a need to amend the legislation which defines what constitutes sexual intercourse with the prosecutrix on the pretext of a false promise to marry her.
In the instant case, the woman alleged that the applicant had also given her medicine to abort the foetus after getting her pregnant twice. The applicant refused to marry the woman even after her parents gave consent for the marriage. Due to this, her parents fixed her marriage elsewhere.
The applicant then posted his personal pictures with the woman using fake Facebook accounts which tarnished the character of the woman and because of this, her marriage was broken. Based on such acts of the applicant, FIR was lodged under various sections of Indian Penal Code and Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008.
The bench stated that as rape laws have detailed definitions, similarly such acts should also be defined in detail in order to know what all can constitute this act.
The bench thus declined the bail application as the bare perusal of FIR showcased prima facie allegations against the applicant/accused.
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