Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s.482 – Penal Code, 1860 – s.376(2)(n) – Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 – s.3(2)(v) – Quashing of FIR – Allegations of establishing sexual relations under false promise of marriage – Complaint by de-facto complainant against the appellant that written agreement between the parties that the appellant would marry the complainant – Later, the appellant and his mother started showing reluctance to the marriage – Allegedly appellant compelled the complainant to indulge in sexual intercourse – Subsequently, the appellant blocked the complainant’s calls and messages – Complainant filed FIR u/ss.417 and 420 IPC against the appellant – Thereafter, another FIR filed alleging that the appellant established sexual relations with the complainant against her wishes on multiple occasions – Appellant filed petition for quashing of the subsequent FIR, which was rejected – Correctness:
Held: No prima facie material on record to substantiate the allegations of cheating or sexual intercourse under a false promise of marriage against the appellant – Allegations levelled in the two FIR’s at great variance and the inherent contradictions in the two reports over the same subject matter cannot be reconciled – Defacto complainant is a highly educated woman aged 30 years – Inherently improbable that the complainant would have forgotten or omitted to mention the incidents of sexual intercourse made under a false promise of marriage while filing the first FIR because all the incidents had already taken place as per the version of the complainant before filing of the first FIR – Also, the de-facto complainant had filed similar FIR against an Assistant Professor of the University, where she was studying – Chats on record along with the additional documents depict the stark reality about the behavioral pattern of the de-facto complainant who appears to be having manipulative and vindictive tendency – Thus, the appellant absolutely justified in panicking and backing out from the proposed marriage upon coming to know of the aggressive sexual behaviour and the obsessive nature of the de-facto complainant – Even assuming that the appellant retracted from his promise to marry the complainant, it cannot be said that he indulged in sexual intercourse with the de-facto complainant under a false promise of marriage or that the offence was committed by him with the de-facto complainant on the ground that she belonged to the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes community, which was not referred in first FIR – Thus, this allegation set out in the subsequent FIR lodged almost after seven months nothing but sheer exaggeration which must be discarded – Allowing prosecution of the appellant to continue in the impugned FIR would be a travesty of justice and gross abuse of the process of Court – Impugned FIR nothing but a bundle of lies full of fabricated and malicious unsubstantiated allegations levelled by the complainant – Thus, the two FIR’s and all proceedings, quashed in entirety. [Paras 22-31]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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