Ignorance of law no excuse for relations outside marriage: Court

A Delhi court said ignorance of law cannot be a valid excuse for consent to physical relations with another person during the subsistence of marriage. The court’s observation came while acquitting a man of the charges of raping a married woman on the false assurance of marriage.

“Ignorance of law cannot be said to be a valid excuse of the prosecutrix (woman) to have consented for physical relations with the accused, during the subsistence of her marriage merely on the assurance that he would marry her,” the court of Additional Session Judge Kaveri Baweja said.

The court rejected the submissions of the woman, a mother of two kids, that she was unaware of the fact that according to Hindu law, she could not marry for the second time during the subsistence of her first marriage.

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“The woman’s plea that she was not aware… cannot be said to be a ground to hold that her consent was not voluntary,” the court said.

The woman had lodged an FIR at the Prasad Nagar Police Station on May 4, alleging that she was raped and criminally intimidated by the accused, a Delhi resident.