#MenToo: Law used for vendetta in many break-ups, say HCs

It was a passing acquaintance that had turned into a love affair for two casino employees in Goa in 2013. Yogesh Palekar, a chef at the casino, had taken his sweetheart home to introduce her to his family. His family wasn't home and the girl spent the night at his place. For several days afterwards they remained in a

sexual relationship

. Then one day Palekar refused to marry the girl because she belonged to a lower caste. She then filed a rape complaint saying she agreed to sexual intercourse because Palekar promised to marry her. Last year, the Goa bench of the Bombay high court acquitted Palekar based on evidence of a "deep love affair" between the two.



Back in 2017, the

Bombay HC

had quashed rape charges against Kunal Mandaliya who had been accused of

cheating

, criminal intimidation and

assault

, since the complainant had been in a consensual relationship with him from 2010 and alleged rape only after relations turned sour. "Consenting adults indulging in sexual relationship are fully aware of consequences and must bear the same," the court had ruled.

Determining whether or not there has been "misconception" or "misrepresentation" of facts in consensual sex is tricky but various HCs have in recent years noticed a trend of false rape cases being filed by women against men who went back on their promises of marriage. HCs and even the Supreme Court have acquitted many men of rape charges which women levelled after a 'promised marriage' failed to materialise. The arrest of actor

Karan Oberoi

after a 34-year-old woman accused him of rape has again brought the issue back into focus, fuelling a debate on men's rights in such cases.



In one such observation six years ago, Justice Sadhana Jadhav of Bombay HC had acquitted a 39-year-old man convicted by a trial court of rape. The judge held that if consent of a woman in a sexual relationship was voluntary, it would not amount to rape. "The complainant is a well-educated adult person. The appellant had proposed to her... She chose to go with him and checked into a hotel to celebrate his birthday. She was aware of the consequences. She had not cried for help... not taken her resistance to a logical end," the judge said.

Yet, in a verdict last month, the SC did uphold the conviction of a Chhattisgarh doctor in a rape case filed by a woman who said her "consent" was taken on a false promise of marriage. Each case has its own peculiar facts which have a bearing on whether the consent was voluntary and the SC held that in this one, the accused "from the very beginning never intended to marry her".



In April 2017, Justice Pratibha Rani of the Delhi HC acquitted a man in a similar allegation of rape. The HC observed that in a "number of cases where both persons, out of their own will and choice, develop a consensual physical relationship, when the relationship breaks due to some reason, the women use the law as a weapon for vengeance and personal vendetta". Calling out for a clear demarcation between rape and consensual sex, the judge said: "They tend to convert such consensual acts as an incident of rape out of anger and frustration, thereby defeating the very purpose of the provision." In January 2019, Justice Nitin Sambre of the Bombay high court granted anticipatory bail to a man in a rape case after observing an "unexplained delay of almost 16 months'' in the FIR being lodged and variations in facts mentioned in it.



Acquittals and anticipatory bails in such cases- where the girl alleges her consent to physical intimacy was based on 'promises of marriage'-is on the rise, say lawyers. In January 2017, granting pre-arrest bail to a 21-year-old Pune resident in a similar case, Justice Mridula Bhatkar of Bombay high court said, "This is an unfortunate but routine case of a boy and girl having an affair, indulging in a sexual relationship and ultimately ending in a breakup.'' In her order, the judge said that they "undoubtedly had consensual relationship and were in love with each other".

Advocate Hitesh Jain said, "While each case has to be tested on its facts, false FIRs after promises are broken, appear to outnumber cases where a man may have had 'mala fide intentions in promising marriage' from the very beginning."