Court Imposes Costs On Woman In Shifting Rape Complaint To Consensual Relationship Claim

The Bombay High Court has imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on a woman who six years ago accused a man of raping her and forcing her to terminate the pregnancy twice, only to state later that it was a consensual relationship and there was no coercion.

A division bench of Justices Anuja Prabhudessai and N R Borkar in its order of September 20, which became available on Tuesday, noted that the woman even stated before the high court that she had terminated her pregnancies of her own will.

The accused in the case had moved the high court seeking to quash the First Information Report (FIR) in the case. "The complainant has filed her affidavit stating that the relationship with petitioner (the accused) was consensual and that she had taken a conscious decision to abort the pregnancies since she was not legally married.

She claims that she is already married to another person and has a child and is living a peaceful family life. She has accorded her consent to quash the FIR and all consequent proceedings," the court noted in the order.

The judges directed that the FIR be quashed accordingly, but also asked the woman to pay Rs 25,000, by way of cost, to the Tata Memorial hospital here within two weeks. The woman had complained in 2017 that the petitioner raped her and his family members compelled her to terminate the pregnancy twice.

Even if the allegations in the FIR were accepted in their entirety, the physical relationship between the parties was consensual, the court observed.