In 2013, a woman registered a FIR in which she alleged that the accused deceived her by making sexual relations on the false promise of marriage. The couple was in a live-in relationship and during the investigation, it was established that the couple got married in 2014.
The Session’s court was trying the case which is now put on stay by a Bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar while hearing the husband’s plea challenging Delhi High Court Order. The Supreme Court Order said that "There shall be a stay of further proceedings in session’s case pending before the Additional Sessions Judge, Saket Courts, New Delhi"
The couple approached the High Court seeking to quash the FIR against the husband lodged by his wife, but the High Court refused to quash the FIR.
The couple approached the Supreme Court after High Court refused their plea and said that High Court did not take into consideration that refusal to quash the proceedings would not only affect settlement made by the parties but also adversely affect the peace and harmony between the parties and their future lives. It also pleaded that consensual intercourse on the false promise of marriage amounting to the offense of rape cannot be treated the same as the offense of rape which is committed forcefully against the will and without the consent of the victim.
Further the aggrieved added that High Court has failed to appreciate that the ends of justice shall be defeated by declining to quash such proceedings when the victim has herself tied the knot with the accused and does not wish to pursue the case or wishes to withdraw the same especially since all such disputes arise only since the accused does not marry the victim in the first place.
Lawyers NishaankMattoo, Abhishek Bharti &Shivika Singh filed the plea in the Supreme Court & Senior Advocate Siddharth Dave argued the case.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court issued notice to Delhi Police on a plea filed by a husband seeking quashing of rape charges levelled by his wife prior to the marriage.
