False rape case harms reputation, wastes judicial time: Court

A false rape charge humiliates a person and harms his reputation and a woman cannot escape criminal proceedings for the offence of perjury, a Delhi court has said.
It said such cases also lead to wasting of precious judicial time by making a mockery of the system in which the police authority is also used on false information for which stern action is needed.
Additional sessions judge Shail Jain ordered initiation of criminal proceedings against a woman for deliberately giving false information to the police and harming the reputation of a man.
The court while acquitting the man, a dance teacher, of the charges of rape and cheating, said it was clear from the woman's testimony that she made a false complaint against him knowing fully well that he neither committed any offence against her nor he raped her on the false pretext of marriage.

"I am of the opinion that this is clear case of furnishing deliberate false information to the police, a public authority thereby making the police use it lawful authority to cause injury to the reputation of the accused persons," the judge said.
The court also considered it proper to prosecute the woman for the criminal offence "in the interest of justice and for making mockery of the judicial system by which precious time of the court has been wasted in conducting the trial of admitted false case, where accused has suffered humiliation and distress and had been in judicial custody for three months besides facing expenses for litigation".

It said it was a fit case for making the court complaint against the woman to the chief metropolitan magistrate concerned for her prosecution for the offence of perjury and directed a court staff to file a separate complaint.

The court noted that during recording of testimony, the woman admitted that the man had not raped her and physical relations between the two were established with her consent and now she has compromised the matter with the accused.
It said the woman falsely implicated the man in a case of serious nature after which the police filed a charge sheet against him and he faced trial which resulted into his acquittal.

The woman had filed a complaint with the police against the man alleging that he raped her repeatedly for nearly a year in 2016 on the false pretext of marriage.
However, in her testimony before the court, she said that in 2015, she had joined dance classes where the man was her teacher and they fell in love with each other and established physical relations with her consent.
Later, there was altercation between them after which she lodged the complaint against him.
The court dispensed with recording of statement of the accused saying there was nothing incriminating against him.