Karnataka High Court dismisses rape case against teenager after allowing him to marry his lover, who is also the mother of his child

The Karnataka High Court had granted 15-day bail to a 23-year-old man accused of raping his underage lover in order to marry her after she recently turned 18. It has now quashed the case against him with a condition that it can be reopened if he abandons his wife and child in future.

“If the matter is not resolved and the complainant is released, the mother and child will be left in a state of abandonment… and the lives of the mother and child would undoubtedly be in grave danger. They would have to suffer disgrace at the hands of society,” the court said.

In order to prevent the emergence of such a “disgraceful situation”, according to the court, it is necessary to discontinue the proceedings and aggravate the crime, since the victim would undoubtedly react with hostility and the prospects of convicting the plaintiff would be completely hopeless.

While allowing the youth’s petition, Justice M. Nagaprasanna also stated that the court cannot close its eyes to the realities and allow the criminal proceedings to be concluded as such proceedings would be agonising till the end and would completely overshadow the joy of an acquittal.

The complainant, a native of Mysuru, was arrested on the complaint filed by the girl’s mother in February 2023. She alleged that he had sexually abused her daughter. The girl’s mother was then against her daughter’s relationship with the complainant, whose family was ready for marriage. The complainant was 21 and the girl was 16 years and nine months old when the complaint was filed.

Paternity test

Subsequently, several months after the plaintiff’s arrest, the girl gave birth to a child. A DNA test later proved that the plaintiff was the child’s biological father.

After the girl recently turned 18, the plaintiff’s family members and the girl’s mother wanted the two to get married, which led to the plaintiff approaching the court and having the marriage application rejected.

On June 13, the court ordered his release on bail from June 17 to July 3. He was to marry her, present the marriage certificate and return to prison by July 4. Subsequently, the plaintiff married her on June 21 and the marriage was registered on June 25. The marriage certificate was presented to the court.