Karnataka HC Quashes Rape Case Over Failed Marriage Promise, Citing Consensual Intimacy And Settlement

Respondent No. 2 complained that she met the petitioner through a matrimonial website and that he had physical relations with her on a promise of marriage.

She also alleged financial transactions between them.

An FIR was registered in Crime No. 121/2024 for offences under Sections 376, 420 and 506 of the IPC; the case proceeded as S.C. No. 1582/2024.

While the petitioner’s quashing petition was pending, the parties settled their financial disputes.

Respondent No. 2 filed an affidavit stating that she had received full and final settlement, had no surviving grievance, and had no objection to quashing the proceedings.

Her counsel submitted that amounts paid by her had been returned, with further amounts paid under the settlement.

The petition invoked the High Court’s inherent jurisdiction under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, to secure justice.

The alleged offences were under Sections 376, 420 and 506 of the IPC.

The Court cited no precedent or detailed statutory test; it relied on its inherent jurisdiction and considered the settlement, the complainant’s stated wishes, and the circumstances in which the complaint arose.

The Court noted that the complaint concerned both physical intimacy allegedly based on a promise of marriage and financial transactions between the parties.

Although it acknowledged the seriousness of the allegations, it considered the parties’ settlement, the complainant’s confirmation that her financial claims had been satisfied, and her express lack of objection to quashing.

It also recorded that the physical intimacy had been consensual at the time and that the complaint was subsequently made on the basis of an alleged false promise to marry.

In those circumstances, the Court concluded that continuing the prosecution would cause injustice to parties who wished to move on.

Pending interlocutory applications were disposed of as no longer surviving.