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Ravish Singh Rana v. State of Uttarakhand

Criminal Appeal · 2025 INSC 635Decided 28 Apr 2025
Crl.A. No.-002438-002438 - 2025 (arising from SLP (Crl.) No. 2776 of 2025)
Justice Sanjay Karol · Justice Manoj Misra

Background

The appellant and the complainant met on Facebook in 2021 and entered a live-in relationship, living together for over two years and having a physical relationship. In late 2023, when the appellant allegedly refused to marry her, the complainant filed an FIR alleging rape (on a false promise of marriage), assault, and criminal intimidation. The appellant pointed to a settlement/agreement dated 19.11.2023, one day before the alleged forced incident, in which both parties acknowledged they loved each other and planned to formalize their relationship through marriage. The Uttarakhand High Court refused to quash the FIR, holding it disclosed a cognizable offence.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that a relationship spanning over two years, involving voluntary cohabitation and repeated physical intimacy without complaint, gives rise to a presumption of valid consent rather than consent obtained solely through a promise of marriage. Relying on its precedents (Pramod Suryabhan Pawar, Deepak Gulati, Sonu @ Subash Kumar), the Court reiterated that a mere failure to fulfil a promise to marry is not the same as a false promise made with no real intention to marry from the outset, and that courts must examine whether consent was vitiated by deception rather than simply presuming it whenever marriage does not eventually happen. The settlement agreement, which recorded that the parties loved each other just a day before the alleged forcible incident, undercut the allegation of coercion. The Court held that continuing the prosecution would be an abuse of process, quashed the FIR and consequential proceedings, and allowed the appeal.

Lesson Learnt

A long-term, consensual live-in relationship between adults is not automatically converted into rape merely because the relationship later ends without marriage: criminal law requires proof that any promise to marry was false from the very beginning and made specifically to obtain consent, not just that a wedding never happened.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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