Bombay high court junks petition seeking rules to prevent misuse of rape law

The petitioner claimed that booking people for rape based on the complaints lodged by their live-in partner amounted to misuse of the rape law.

“We can’t assume gross abuse of the rape law,” said the Bombay high court on Monday while rejecting a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a 27-year-old doctor seeking changes in the law to prevent misuse.

The division bench directed that the petition be removed from the list of PILs and be treated as a writ petition. (HT file photo)

The petitioner claimed that booking people for rape based on the complaints lodged by their live-in partner amounted to misuse of the rape law, and sought a direction to the state government to frame guidelines to stop the purpoted misuse.

The petitioner had approached the HC seeking the annulment of criminal proceedings initiated against him based on his live-in partner’s complaint. He said physical relations between the two had been consensual.

The division bench of justices SC Dharmadhikari and Bharati Dangre directed that the petition be removed from the list of PILs and be treated as a writ petition. “Persons aggrieved by police action have ample remedies. Aggrieved people can seek remedies available to them at the individual level and not through a representative petition,” said the bench.

The state expressed inability to frame guidelines as sought by the petitioner. In an affidavit filed in response to the PIL, the state home department said it is not possible to issue guidelines to restrain cops from registering FIRs in rape cases in consensual relationships. According to section 154 of the Criminal Procedure Code and the SC’s judgment in 2013 Lalita Kumari case, police are mandated to register an FIR in the case of cognisable offences.