The Shadow Of Deceit: A Critique Of Judicial Narrowness In Sexual Exploitation On The Pretext Of Marriage
- IJLLR Journal
- May 20
- 2 min read
Nanda Kishore S
ABSTRACT
The introduction of Section 69 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was heralded as a legislative recognition of the "grey area" between consensual sex and rape. However, judicial reliance on the "Intent at Inception" test continues to render this provision a "paper tiger." By analysing the cases of Pramod Kumar Navratna, the Rahul Mamkootathil allegations, and the Anurag Soni doctrine, this article argues that the current legal standard for "deceit" creates an impossible evidentiary burden for victims, effectively legalizing serial sexual predation under the guise of adult autonomy.
The IPC Era: The Architecture of Vitiated Consent
For over 160 years, the Indian legal system grappled with a conceptual gap: how to punish a man who obtained sexual consent through a false promise of marriage. Because the IPC did not have a specific provision for "sexual fraud," prosecutors were forced to shoehorn these cases into Section 375 (Rape).
To achieve this, the judiciary relied on Section 90 IPC, which stated that consent given under a "misconception of fact" is no consent at all. The argument was that if a woman consented to sex only because she believed a marriage would follow, a false promise constituted a "misconception." If the promise was a lie from the start, the consent was "vitiated," and the act was legally categorized as rape.
This "legal fiction" was inherently unstable. It forced judges to equate a manipulative lover with a violent predator, leading to deep discomfort in the stands. In many cases, if a relationship lasted for years or if the couple lived together, courts were hesitant to label the man a "rapist," resulting in a high rate of acquittals. The law struggled to distinguish between a "breach of promise" (a civil wrong where the intent to marry was genuine but failed due to circumstances) and a "false promise" (a criminal act where there was never an intention to marry).
