Where the relationship ends in a breakup, the man is in the lockup: Karnataka High Court

Karnataka High Court highlights misuse of Section 69, releasing a man wrongfully jailed after a relationship breakup.

“Where the relationship ends in a breakup, the man is in the lockup,” the Karnataka High Court observed, while highlighting the “misuse” of Section 69 (sexual intercourse by deceitful means or false promise of marriage) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and mushrooming of cases before the court challenging complaints lodged against men under this provision of the criminal law.

The court made these observations in its interim order of staying a probe against a 34-year-old man and ordering his immediate release from prison, where he has been lodged for the past 42 days based on the complaint lodged by his woman colleague, with whom he had a relationship for about eight months.

“Though the provision, i.e., Section 69 of the BNS, would punish a person having sexual intercourse with the victim on the deceitful promise of marriage, in the case at hand there is no indication except the fact that the breach of promise of marriage is an afterthought that springs in the complaint,” observed Justice Nagaprasanna in his April 8 interim order.

A perusal of the complaint would clearly indicate that the acts between the petitioner and the complainant were all consensual as not a word of allegation of sexual assault by the petitioner against the complainant is narrated in it, the court pointed out, while staying the probe.

Citing the apex court’s guidelines for interfering with First Information Reports, the High Court said that continuing the investigation would be an abuse of process.