Tinder Relationship Turning Sour Doesn't By Itself Amount To Rape On False Promise Of Marriage: Uttarakhand High Court

The Uttarakhand High Court has held that where two adults enter into a consensual relationship after meeting through a dating application like Tinder, the relationship cannot subsequently be termed as one based on a false pretext of marriage merely because it later turns sour and does not culminate in marriage. The Court observed that the allegations disclosed a consensual relationship and not an offence under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code.

Justice Siddhartha Sah was hearing an application under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure seeking quashing of the criminal proceedings arising out of an FIR registered under Section 376 IPC. According to the FIR, the complainant came in contact with the applicant through the Tinder app in August 2019. The parties became friends, met in Haldwani, and, after consuming liquor at the applicant's hotel, entered into a physical relationship. The complainant alleged that thereafter the applicant repeatedly assured her that he would marry her and continued to have physical relations with her. She lodged the FIR after learning through Instagram that the applicant had become engaged to another woman. The applicant contended that Tinder is a dating platform and not a matrimonial website, that the relationship was consensual from its inception, and that the FIR was lodged only after the relationship failed.

The Court observed that it was undisputed from the FIR and the statements recorded under Sections 161 and 164 Cr.P.C. that the parties came into contact through the Tinder app, met voluntarily and entered into a physical relationship. It further observed that the respondent was a mature person who, of her own free will and accord, entered into the relationship.

The Court held that if such a relationship subsequently turns sour and does not culminate in marriage, that by itself cannot be a ground to term the physical relationship as one established on the false pretext of marriage.

“… the respondent no. 2 was a mature person who, out of her own free will and accord, entered into a physical relationship with the applicant. If subsequently, the relationship turns sour and did not culminate in marriage, that by itself cannot be a ground to term the relationship between the parties as one involving physical relationship on the false pretext of marriage,” the Court observed.

The Court found merit in the applicant's contention that, having met through the Tinder app, there was no such alleged promise to marry at the inception of the relationship. It held that the case did not disclose a case of physical relationship established on the false pretext of marriage and that continuation of the prosecution under Section 376 IPC would amount to an abuse of the process of law.

Accordingly, the Court allowed the application under Section 482 Cr.P.C. and quashed the entire proceedings arising out of the FIR under Section 376 IPC pending before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate.

Case Title: Ankush Sehgal v. State of Uttarakhand & Anr. [Criminal Misc. Application No. 1248 of 2022]

Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (UK) 83

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