If intimacy is consensual, it cannot be called rape after separation: India's Supreme Court

The bench of Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice R Mahadevan said that in recent years there has been a tendency, after a relationship ends, to minutely scrutinize old incidents and present them as violence or sexual assault. This observation was made in the verdict of a case from Kerala, where a woman filed a rape case against her married former lover eight years later. After 15 years, exonerating the man from the charges, the court said it was clearly a consensual relationship.

The court warned that if every bitter separation is turned into a rape case, the seriousness of the actual crime diminishes. Everyone has the right to leave a relationship, and this is not deception or fraud. However, where there is a genuine lack of consent or evidence of sexual assault, strict legal action must be taken. The court emphasized that if a relationship breaks down, the justice system must not be turned into a weapon for revenge.