Sending 'Obscene Messages' To Fiancée Before Marriage Is Not An Insult To Her Dignity: Bombay High Court

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court (BHC) has observed that sending obscene messages to the fiancee before marriage is not an insult to her dignity.

According to the court, such messages might provide the feeling that she is close enough to understand his feelings.

Reportedly, the court made this observation while acquitting a 36-year-old man accused of raping her on the pretext of marriage. The two met in the year 2007 at the Matrimonial site. Since, the boy's mother was against the marriage, the boy ended the relationship with the girl in the year 2010.

According to a report, the woman had lodged a case against the man in 2010.

The court said that turning away by promising marriage cannot be called cheating or rape.

It was brought into the notice of the court that the couple also went to Arya Samaj Hall for marriage. But there was a quarrel over the issue of living after marriage and in the end the boy refused to marry, obeying his mother.

"He had been to Arya Samaj Hall with a mangalsutra but it was the quarrel on the ground of stay after marriage and thereafter, by getting tired of his indecisiveness and getting surrendered before his mother's wish and failing to tackle the problem stood before him," a media report quoted the court as saying.

Observing that it was case of "failure to make substantial efforts" to make marriage possible, the court rejected the woman's claim that the man's promise of marriage was false.

The court said that sending obscene messages to the fiancée before marriage could amount to expressing their desire between the two, it can be arousing.

''Maybe the girl (fiancé) might be happy with such a message. The message cannot be seen to be associated with hurting the dignity of the fiancee,'' several reports courted the court as saying.

Sending obscene text messages law:

Notably, sending obscene material (photos, pictures, films, messages) to a woman through social media is an act of sexual harassment under the IPC. Showing or sending a woman pornographic or sexually explicit material without her consent is a form of sexual harassment under Section 354A of the IPC.

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