A writ petition filed in the Bombay High Court has pleaded for a direction to the Maharashtra government and police to frame guidelines to prevent abuse of law in criminal FIRs in which love relationships turn sour and end up in rape charges.
The petition has been jointly filed by a girl and a boy who were involved as complainant and accused respectively in a rape case which was recently quashed by the high court after the girl denied the rape charge.
The complainant had pleaded that her statement was recorded by police in Marathi which was incorrect and beyond her understanding and comprehension.
The petition has sought framing of guidelines to prevent abuse of law in love-related rape cases. The petitioners prayed that the victims may be permitted to record their statements in English or Hindi as against in Marathi language.
The couple also pleaded that arrests in such cases should be deferred when the accused are ready to cooperate in the investigation.
The petition prayed that the high court may consider framing guidelines in FIRs being registered with great frequency where the common allegations involve a love affair or physical relations which then end up as FIRs in a police station when issues turn bad between such adult partners.
The petition sought introduction of guidelines to prevent abuse of the law and saving lives of innocent people from being ruined with a stigma of a rape case, just because a love relationship has gone sour.
The petitioners cited their own case in which police had wrongly recorded statement of the girl alleging that her boyfriend had raped her. While denying the rape charge, the girl said she was in love with the boy but police had wrongly recorded her statement and slapped rape charges against him.
The petition prayed that all the police stations in Maharashtra may be directed to record statements of victims of sexual offences in Hindi or English as against in Marathi language, so that there is absolutely no ambiguity in facts of the case.
The petition will come up for hearing in due course and will be argued by a team of lawyers led by Swapna Kode and Mahesh Vaswani.
