Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court has observed that a mother’s disapproval of a relationship cannot be accepted as a genuine excuse for a man to evade criminal scrutiny after allegedly reneging on a marriage promise made to a woman with whom he had an affair.The court refused to quash a FIR lodged against an NRI under Section 69 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which penalises sexual intercourse achieved through deceitful means, including false promises of marriage made without any intention of fulfilment, holding that the allegations required proper investigation and trial.According to the FIR, the man, a permanent resident of Zambia, came in contact with the complainant over social media in Nov 2022 and their interaction later developed into a relationship. The woman alleged that the man called her to Vadodara in Feb 2024, took her to a hotel and stayed with her from Feb 12 to 14, 2024.She alleged that during this period he established physical relations with her after assuring her that he would marry her in Dec 2024. However, in Jan 2025, he allegedly refused to go ahead with the marriage, telling her that his mother did not approve of the match.The woman then lodged an FIR at Sayajiganj police station in Vadodara in May 2025 under Section 69 of the BNS.The man approached the high court seeking to quash the FIR, arguing that the relationship was voluntary and genuine and that his conduct showed seriousness about the alliance. He cited financial assistance, gifts given to the complainant and his contact with her family as circumstances indicating that he intended to marry her, but could not do so because his mother opposed the match. The state government opposed the quashing plea.After hearing the matter, Justice M K Thakkar observed, “Whether this act or the explanation can suggest that the applicant really wanted to marry the victim or had mala fide motives? It emerges from the allegations that only to satisfy his lust the false promise of marriage was given to the complainant though he had no intention to marry her.”Rejecting the explanation offered by the accused, the court said, “Merely giving the explanation that mother is not agreed for the marriage cannot be considered to be bonafide reason or the circumstances which is beyond the control of the applicant. It is the applicant who before indulging into the relations could have taken the sense of the mother, however, denying subsequently smokes of malafide motive of the applicant.”
