![Seduction on false assurance to marry: Bombay HC dismisses plea to quash criminal proceedings for rape [Read Judgment]](https://gumlet.assettype.com/barandbench%2F2020-02%2F7aa7d97e-3139-411e-b80f-3a30542421a2%2FBombay_High_Court_READ_Judgment.png?rect=0%2C1217%2C3246%2C1217&auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max)
The Court found that, prima facie, the applicant had seduced the complainant with an false assurance that his love for her was exclusive and that he would support her when the time came.
The Bombay High Court recently dismissed a plea to quash criminal proceedings against a man accused of rape on allegations that he seduced the woman (complainant) on a false assurance to marry her (Mohammed Aamir Ansari v. State of Maharashtra & Ors).
The Division Bench comprising of Justices Sunil B Shukre and Madhav J Jamdar observed that,
"Here, the misconception has been created not because of giving of a false promise of marriage but because of giving of a false assurance to the respondent No.2 that the applicant had his genuine and exclusive love for respondent No.2 which made respondent No.2 believe that the applicant, whenever time would come, would not ditch her and would support her wholeheartedly. But that was not to happen. When the time indeed came, the applicant showed his true colors and stoutly refused to marry respondent No.2."
The High Court proceeded to hold that this was sufficient to gauge that the complainant's consent for physical relations was on the basis if a misconception. The judgment explains,
"A person who expresses such words for another creates an impression in the mind of the another that the person exclusively belongs to another and that the person, would not cheat another at any point of time, and when it is seen that those words were not really meant by the person, it would, in our opinion, lead to formation of a prima-facie inference regarding the consent having been given under misconception of fact."
Bombay High Court
