Sending dirty message before marriage not a crime: After 11 years, a 36-year-old man was released from the charges of cheating and rape under the pretext of marriage. The woman had accused the man of sending "obscene messages" before marriage and a sessional court announced that such messages to a girl one is going to marry cannot be called "insulting her modesty".
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According to the sessional court which came to this decision, such messages in the premarital period can be "delightful". The court, while acquitting the accused man, said that if one person in the relationship does not like it, they can convey it to the person and the person generally avoids repeating it.
The court said, "The purpose was to put up his expectation before her, to arouse her with a similar feeling of sex, which may give happiness to her, etc. But in no way those SMSs can be said as were sent to insult her modesty."
This case was filed by the woman in 2010 as a first-person report (FIR). The couple had met on a matrimonial site in 2007 and decided to marry. Although the family of the man was not happy with the match, they continued seeing each other.
Even the parents of the accused were charged in the case.
After three years of the relationship, the man decided to part ways as his mother refused to let him stay at his house if he continued seeing the woman. After that, the woman had filed the FIR saying that the man cheated on her and raped her under the pretext of marriage.
Now, the court has let go of all the charges against the man and said that not every breach of promise to marry can be stated as cheating or rape. The court also said that the man had tried to show effort by renting a flat and renovating his family's place. He even went to the Arya Samaj Hall with a mangalsutra. The accused man can be called indecisive.
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Talking about the woman, the court said that she could not have allowed the accused to have sex with her prior marriage but she opted for it too. "Even after respecting emotions of the informant (woman), respecting her fighting for justice for 11 years or more, this court is of the humble opinion that this is not a case which would show that the offence of rape has been committed," the court said.
In August 2021, the Allahabad High Court on a similar issue of rape under the pretext of marriage said that such cases will be taken into account as rape and also stressed that a law needs to be in place for this. "Rape is considered as the most physically and morally reprehensible crime in a society and has a long-lasting effect on the mind of victims (survivors)... sexual intercourse with the victim (survivor) on the pretext of false marriage to promise is, and ought to be an offence of rape under the penal provisions," the court said.
In a recent landmark judgement, Kerala High Court said that "submission" in the face of inevitable compulsion is not "consent". The court also said that just because the survivor was in love with the accused does not mean that she gave consent to sexual intercourse.
The Rajasthan Member of Legislative Assembly and Bharatiya Janata Party member, Pratap Bheel was recently charged for rape under the pretext of marriage in two different cases within the span of 10 months. The first report was filed by a woman from Madhya Pradesh and another from a woman in Rajasthan. Both alleged that he offered to give them jobs, then raped them under the pretext of marriage.
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