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Samadhan S/O Sitaram Manmothe vs State of Maharashtra & Another

Not available · 2025 INSC 1351Decided 24 Nov 2025
Not available
Mrs. Justice B.V. Nagarathna · Justice R. Mahadevan

Background

The appellant, a practising advocate, met respondent No.2 (the complainant) in 2022 while she was pursuing a maintenance case against her estranged husband. The two developed a close relationship over WhatsApp and phone calls, and the appellant repeatedly proposed marriage; the complainant alleged that on the strength of his assurance to marry her, she entered into a physical relationship with him that continued over roughly two years, resulting in three pregnancies, all of which were terminated with the appellant's knowledge. When the appellant eventually refused to marry her and allegedly threatened her, she filed an FIR in 2024 alleging rape under Sections 376, 376(2)(n) and 507 IPC. After a chargesheet was filed, the appellant sought to have the FIR quashed, but the Bombay High Court refused, holding a trial was needed to test whether the relationship was truly consensual or induced by a fiduciary-like relationship of trust.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court disagreed with the High Court and quashed the FIR and chargesheet. Applying settled precedent, it held that for a promise of marriage to vitiate consent and constitute rape, there must be clear evidence that the accused never intended to keep the promise from the very outset: a mere subsequent failure or change of mind to marry does not automatically amount to "misconception of fact" under Section 90 IPC. On the facts here (a sustained, mutual, multi-year relationship with repeated consensual physical intimacy and joint decisions to terminate pregnancies) the Court found the relationship was voluntary and consensual throughout, with no evidence of fraud, coercion, or a false promise made with no intention of ever being kept. It held continuing the prosecution on these facts would amount to abuse of the court's process, allowed the appeal, and quashed both the FIR and the chargesheet.

Lesson Learnt

A criminal charge of rape based on "false promise of marriage" requires proof that the promise was false from the very beginning and never genuinely intended: a long, mutually consensual relationship that later ends without marriage, without more, is not by itself sufficient to convert consensual acts into rape.

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

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