Is intimacy between live-in couples rape?

Supreme Court bench makes observation after a woman filed FIR

While examining the issue of consent for sexual relationship between a couple living together, the Supreme Court yesterday queried whether sexual intercourse between them can be termed as rape.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian said: “If a couple is living together as man and wife...the husband may be brutal, but could the sexual intercourse between the couple, who are living together, can be termed as rape?”

The observations from the top court came while hearing a plea of a person accused of rape by a woman, who had been in a live-in relationship with him for over two years. The woman had filed an FIR for rape after the man married another woman. Senior advocate Vibha Dutta Makhija, representing the accused, submitted before the bench that the couple used to work together, and they were in a live-in relationship for over two years. The bench noted that making a false promise for marriage is wrong.

According to the complainant, who was represented by advocate Aditya Vashisth, the couple was in a romantic relationship, but she had clearly refused getting into a sexual intimacy before marriage. Vashisth argued that his client’s consent was obtained by fraud. The top court was informed that the couple had gone to Manali, where they participated in a marriage ritual. The petitioner denied that any marriage took place, instead he was a live-in relationship where they had consensual intimacy.