Allahabad HC Expresses Concern over “Failed Intimate Relationships” Causing Criminal Proceedings

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Apr 18: Even after the Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up the Allahabad High Court for its remark suggesting that a rape survivor had “invited trouble and was responsible for it,” the High Court on Friday granted bail to yet another rape accused while expressing concern over “an emerging trend of failed intimate relationships increasingly resulting in criminal proceedings.”

The Allahabad high court granted bail to a 42-year-old married man Arun Kumar Mishra accused of rape by a 25-year-old woman, noting that the FIR was lodged after delay of several months and seemed to arise more from the ‘emotional aftermath’ of their failed relationship rather than from any bona fide grievance of criminal wrongdoing.

The Allahabad High Court had attracted the Supreme Court’s ire over Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh making the comments on March 11 while granting bail to an accused arrested in December 2024 for allegedly raping a woman he had met at a bar in Delhi’s Hauz Khas area.

While granting bail to Arun Kumar Mishra, Justice Krishan Pahal said it was increasingly being observed that “personal fallouts” and “emotional discord” were being given a criminal colour through the invocation of penal laws, particularly in the aftermath of “failed intimate relationships.”

“This case is reflective of a broader societal shift, where the sanctity and solemnity once associated with intimate relationships have seen a marked decline. The prevalence of transient and uncommitted relationships, often formed and dissolved at will, raises critical questions about individual responsibility and the misuse of legal provisions especially when such relationships turn sour,” Justice Pahal observed.

Justice Pahal said the woman, with full and conscious knowledge that Mishra had earlier been married thrice, chose to establish a corporeal relationship with him. Granting bail to the applicant, the high court noted that the FIR against him was lodged after a delay of several months and seemed to arise more from the “emotional aftermath” of a failed relationship rather than from any bona fide grievance of criminal wrongdoing.

The applicant’s counsel submitted that the FIR was delayed by six months and that the victim was in a consensual relationship with the applicant. The counsel further submitted that the victim willingly travelled with him to many places and stayed in hotels with him during the period he allegedly committed the crime.

The informant’s counsel submitted that the applicant was already married to three other women, is a casanova and is used to luring different women into consensual relationships. After considering the facts and circumstances of the case, the delay in filing the FIR, submissions made by counsel for the parties, the evidence on record and the victim being a well-qualified woman, the court granted bail to Mishra.