Allahabad HC sets aside life term in rape case, cites 'western ideas' behind live-in relationship

The Allahabad High Court has set aside the life imprisonment awarded to a man convicted of kidnapping and rape, holding that the woman was an adult who had entered into a consensual relationship, and observing that the growing preference for live-in relationships among youth is influenced by “western ideas”.

A division bench of Justice Siddharth and Justice Prashant Mishra allowed a criminal appeal filed by Chandresh, who had challenged his conviction under sections 363 (kidnapping), 366 (abduction for marriage) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code, Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Section 3(2)(V) of the SC/ST Act.

The bench noted that when live-in relationships fail, first information reports alleging rape are often lodged, and cautioned against mechanically applying criminal law in cases where adults engage in consensual relationships.

According to the prosecution, the accused had enticed away the informant’s daughter on the pretext of marriage, taken her to Bengaluru and established physical relations. The trial court had accepted the prosecution case and convicted the accused, awarding him life imprisonment.

However, after examining the records, the High Court found that the woman was a major at the time of the incident. The bench pointed out that the trial court failed to properly consider the ossification test report, which assessed the woman’s age to be around 20 years.

The court also flagged inconsistencies in the mother’s testimony. While the FIR mentioned the girl’s age as 18-and-a-half years, the mother later claimed she was 17 during her deposition before the court. The bench remarked that the change appeared to have been made on “legal advice”.

Referring to the conduct of the woman, the High Court observed that she travelled with the appellant by public transport — including a government bus and a train — to Gorakhpur and later to Bengaluru without raising any alarm. She lived with the appellant in a residential locality in Bengaluru for about six months and maintained a consensual physical relationship with him, the court said.

The bench noted that the woman contacted her family only after the appellant dropped her back at Shikarpur Crossing on August 6, 2021. In these circumstances, the conviction for kidnapping and abduction was “absolutely unwarranted”, the court held, as the woman had eloped of her own free will.

On the rape and POCSO charges, the High Court said that since the woman was a major and the relationship was consensual, the trial court’s findings were unsustainable. It added that existing laws, which were framed at a time when live-in relationships were not socially recognised, are sometimes applied without appreciating the changed social realities.

“Since the victim was major and in a consensual relationship, the conviction under the rape and POCSO provisions cannot be sustained,” the bench said, concluding that the trial court had failed to properly appreciate the evidence on record.

The High Court, therefore, set aside the conviction and sentence, allowed the appeal and acquitted the appellant of all charges.

With inputs from PTI