India: Retracting marriage promise after consensual sex amounts to rape

Submitted by Mastodon on Thu, 2013-01-17 22:56

Article here.

'If a man has consensual sex with a woman after promising to marry her but later retracts, it amounts to rape, the Delhi High Court has said.

Dismissing the anticipatory bail application of one Firoz Ahmed, who had sexual relations with a widow, Justice Kailash Gambhir held that retracting from a promise of marriage after consensual sex would tantamount to rape.

Ahmed was booked under IPC sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) following a complaint lodged by the woman.

The judge agreed with the view of the trial judge, who had dismissed Ahmed’s bail application, saying that the woman’s consent was obtained under the pretext of marriage and that the intention of the accused from the beginning was not to marry her.

Justice Gambhir upheld prosecution’s argument that Ahmed did not deserve bail as the offence fell under IPC section 375(4), which states that consent for sex obtained under a false pretext also amounts to rape.'

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Let's say a woman promises to have sex w/ a man if he agrees to marry her, but only after they get married. They get married, but she doesn't intend to have sex w/ him. She just wants to be a bride at a sumptuous wedding, which she insists they have. The groom and possibly his family go into debt for the wedding. So they get married. The wedding night arrives and she's too "tired". Fair enough. They go on a groom-financed honeymoon to Paris. She's too "tired" all those two weeks.

They get home and she remains "tired". The groom's fed up and confronts her abt. her behavior. She then admits she has no intention of ever having sex w/ him because sex does not now nor has ever held any interest for her. But she says she wanted to be married because her friends were all married and she also just wanted to be a bride.

So the groom is angry, and he goes to his lawyer and explains the situation. "You're in luck," he says. "The marriage isn't consummated, so you can apply for an annulment in law. The marriage will be voided, as long as you two don't have sex." "No problem there, I'm sure," the groom replies. But then he asks his lawyer: "Hey, I paid $15,000 all-told for this wedding; can I sue her for recovery since she married me under what amounts to false pretenses, especially after she said she'd have sex w/ me after we got married?"

His lawyer's answer: "Sorry, no. There's no basis for doing that."

So we're just talking about a recovery of costs here, not even a criminal complaint, such as rape. But the sucker's out of luck.

By the way, if the plaintiff in this case in India were male and the defendant female, would she be charged w/ rape? Don't think so.

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Submitted by Matt on Fri, 2013-01-18 01:59