Breach of promise to marry does not constitute an offence unless consent is obtained fraudulently.

ORAL ORDER

1. The petitioners are sought to be prosecuted for the offences punishable under Sections 376 , 376(n), 420, 504 read with Section

34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 .

2. The case of the prosecution is that accused No.1, by promising to marry the survivor, induced her to have sexual intercourse and thereafter breached the promise to marry. The allegation against accused No.2 is that he threatened the survivor not to have any relationship with accused No.1 and asked her to pay Rs.5,00,000/- in this regard.

3. Accused No.1 and the survivor are present before this Court. The survivor has agreed to withdraw all the allegations against the accused and has no objection to the quashing of the impugned proceedings.

4. The learned Additional Government Advocate for the respondent-State submits that the offences alleged against the accused are heinous and constitute a crime against society, and therefore, cannot be compounded.

5. In the complaint, the survivor has alleged that she and petitioner/accused No.1 were in a relationship for four years prior to the date of lodging the FIR. It is well-settled law that mere breach of a promise to marry will not constitute an offence unless the consent was obtained fraudulently at the time of inception. In the present case, there is no material to substantiate that petitioner/accused No.1 had obtained the consent of the survivor fraudulently to have sexual intercourse. Therefore, mere breach of the promise to marry does not satisfy the essential elements to constitute the commission of the offence of cheating and rape.

6. Further, since the survivor has agreed to withdraw all the allegations and has no objection to quashing the impugned criminal proceedings, it would be a futile exercise to subject the accused to trial, as the probability of conviction is remote and bleak, in light of the settlement. As such, the continuation of the criminal proceedings would amount to an abuse of the process of law.

Hence, I pass the following:

ORDER i) Accordingly, the criminal petition is allowed.

ii) The criminal proceedings in C.C. No.116/2023 pending on the file of the Senior Civil Judge & JMFC, Banahatti, insofar as it relates to petitioners/accused Nos.1 and 2, is hereby quashed.