Intercourse With Adult Woman Habituated to Sex With Her Consent Cannot be Rape: Orissa High Court

Cuttack: Orissa High Court in a recent judgment opined that a sexual relationship with an adult woman used to sex with her consent cannot be termed rape.

With this opinion, the Orissa High Court acquitted a man accused of raping his sister-in-law. As per the court, the concerned woman was a married adult with prior sexual experience and did not resist the forceful act, so it cannot be considered as rape.

But the court clarified that such a relationship if not consensual or if the consent is acquired by use of force, then it can attribute to rape.

In this case, the woman alleged that her brother-in-law forced her to have sex with him in a forest in 2014. Her husband located them and then she filed a case against her brother-in-law accusing that he had raped her.

The lower court had found the man guilty, who approached the High Court against the order of the lower court.

The medical report of the woman hinted that there were no injury marks on her body and she had offered no resistance.

So, the Orissa High Court overruled the judgment of the lower court with the opinion that since the victim was a consenting party, the conviction of the appellant under section 376(2)(f) of the Indian Penal Code is not sustainable in the eye of law…”