The Supreme Court on Monday said in a prolonged live-in relationship, consensual sex between a couple could not be categorised as rape if the man failed to keep his promise of marriage to the woman. "Making a false promise to marry is wrong. Even a woman should not promise to marry and then break away. But that does not me an in a prolonged live in relationship, sexual intercourse would be categorised as rape," a bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said. The case related to two call centre employees who were in a live-in relationship for five years. The man finally married another woman, leading to the spurned lover slappingrape charges against him, accusing the man of indulging in sexual intercourse on the false promise of marriage. Appearing for the man, senior advocate Vibha Datta Makhija said if consensual sex in a live-in could result in rape charges, which leads to arrest of the man, it would set a dangerous precedent.

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The Times of India