The Bombay High Court has said that the ‘educated women’ must take liability for their decision to enter a pre-marital sexual relationship and a promise of marriage cannot be measured as a reason to allege rape in every case. The judgment was passed by the Justice Mridula Bhatkar.
The observations was made when the court was hearing the case of a woman who accused her ex-boyfriend of rape, as according to her, the boy convince her to have pre-marital sex with a promise to marry her.
“There should be some material on record to believe prima facie that the girl was induced by the accused to such an extent that she was ready to have sexual intercourse with him,” observed Bhatkat. “A promise to marry cannot be said to be an inducement in these types of cases.”
Society and societal interactions continues to carry “the baggage of morality”, with pre-marital sex being a “matter of censure,” the judge noted further.
“Under such circumstances, a woman who is in love with a boy forgets that to have sex is her option like her counterpart’s but refuses to take responsibility for her decision,” Bhatkar said, according to NewsX.
However, the bench observed that a fake promise to marry could be seen as an inducement to rape if the woman was not educated.
On the ground of this observation, the court granted pre-arrest bail to the accused.
