SC flags ‘growing tendency’ of filing criminal cases when relationships sour

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said every consensual relationship, where a possibility of wedlock may exist, couldn’t be given a “colour of a false pretext to marry” in the event of a fall out.

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma observed a “growing tendency” of resorting to filing of criminal proceedings when relationships soured.

“We find that there is a growing tendency of resorting to initiation of criminal proceedings when relationships turn sour. Every consensual relationship, where a possibility of marriage may exist, cannot be given a colour of a false pretext to marry, in the event of a fall out,” it said.

The observations came when the top court set aside an order of the Calcutta High Court which refused to discharge a former judicial officer in an FIR lodged in 2015 for the alleged offence of rape.

The appellant before the bench was a former judicial officer who superannuated from the post of civil judge (senior division), city civil court, Calcutta.

An FIR was registered by the complainant who alleged that in 2014, during the pendency of a litigation arising out of a marital discord with her former husband, she came in touch with the appellant who was also separated from his wife.