Criminal law

The High Court of Kerala in its judgement in the case XXX v State of Kerala and Another (2022 (1) KLD 780) said that a married woman, who clearly knows that the person who had sex with him cannot legally marry her when her marriage with another person subsists, cannot accuse the person on the charge of rape for giving false promise to marry.

If the court considers that the charge against the accused is prima facie groundless it shall pass an order of discharge under Section 239 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973(CrPC). If the accused is not discharged, then the court is bound to frame the charge against the accused.

Retweeting, forwarding or sharing of offensive messages on social media as such is not at all declared as a criminal offence in India. However, there are some provisions, under the Information Technology Act (IT Act) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which may put criminal liability on the person who does such an act.

The Supreme Court (SC), in a Suo Motu Criminal Contempt Petition No.866 of 2021, said on 23rd May 2022 that making allegations against judges is unfortunately becoming a new fashion now and the stronger the judge, the greater the allegations against him.

The Supreme Court (SC), on 18th May 2022, ordered the release of A G Perarivalan, one of the life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination (in the case AG Perarivalan v State) by resolving some of the unsettled legal issues.

The question of woman’s consent in sex within marital relation is again on sharp focus. The split verdict of the two judge Bench - Justice Rajiv Shakdher and Justice C Hari Shankar - of the Delhi High Court on 11th May 2022 has reignited the issue. Justice Rajiv Shakdher headed the two-judge Bench. The split verdict came out in the case RIT Foundation v. UOI and other connected matters, in a batch of petitions filed in 2015, challenging the protection provided to marital rape.

The consent expressed by a woman involved in a sexual act must be an unequivocal voluntary agreement or willingness to participate in the specific sexual act. It can be communicated by the woman by words, gesture or any form or verbal or non-verbal communication.

A conspiracy takes place when two or more people make an agreement to commit or cause to be done, an illegal act or a legal act through illegal means and to take some step consequent to the agreement. Conspiracy does not require that the illegal act to be completed. A group of individuals can be convicted of conspiracy to commit burglary even if the actual burglary never happens. In a conspiracy an accused can be charged with both the offences: the conspiracy to commit a crime, and the crime itself.

The act of giving false oral evidence (perjury) or giving false written statement (forgery) is a criminal offence, punishable under Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC). The word perjury is not used in IPC, but forgery is described in Section 463 IPC.

The High Court (HC) cannot direct the investigation agency not to arrest the accused during the course of investigation or to ask the Trial Magistrate to admit the accused on bail while dismissing the application of the accused for quashing the Fist Information Report (FIR) under Section 482 Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (CrPC).