ridge: : Warning that the criminal law should not become a tool in failed personal relationships, the Orissa High Court has acquitted a 25-year-old man accused of raping a married woman.Quashing the sentence and 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment imposed by a fast-track court in Koraput district, Justice SK Panigrahi on May 22 said consensual relationships between adults cannot be turned over in a subsequent criminal trial in the absence of clear evidence of lack of consent. The judgment was uploaded online on 27 May. His lawyer Subodh Kumar Mohanty said that the man is currently lodged in Jeypore jail.According to the prosecution, when the married woman was alone at home, on the night of May 21, 2022, the 25-year-old man allegedly entered her house and sexually assaulted her. The Additional District and Sessions Judge (Fast Track) of the special court in Jaipur had convicted him under sections 376 (1) and 450 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on July 10, 2025.While considering a criminal appeal filed by the man the same year, the HC held that the evidence on record did not establish the absence of consent beyond reasonable doubt.Justice Panigrahi said, “Where a mature and married woman voluntarily consents to sexual intercourse and subsequently wishes to characterize it as the offense of rape, the allegations should be investigated with more care and caution.”The judge stated that “Mere consensual intimacy arising out of voluntary intercourse between adults cannot really be brought within the scope of the offense of rape unless the essential element of absence of free consent is prima facie established”.The HC held that Section 90 of the IPC, relating to consent obtained under fear or misconception, cannot be “mechanically invoked” without clear evidence. Describing the prosecution’s case as flawed, Justice Panigrahi said it had “clearly failed to establish, beyond the shadow of reasonable doubt, the fundamental elements of criminal intent and lack of consent”.“To allow every dysfunctional or strained relationship between consenting adults to subsequently result in a criminal trial for the offense of rape would be contrary to the true spirit, purpose and sanctity of the law relating to sexual offences,” the judgment said.Holding that the trial court improperly appreciated the evidence and came to a wrong conclusion, the HC quashed the conviction.