New Delhi, Oct. 30 -- The Supreme Court on Friday cautioned against the growing tendency to turn failed relationships into criminal cases, observing that consensual physical intimacy cannot retrospectively be termed rape merely because a relationship has broken down.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan made the observations while discharging a Keralam man, Santosh Kumar N P, from charges of rape and cheating.

Distinguishing between consent obtained through deliberate deception and regret arising from a failed relationship, the bench said that consensual intimacy during a subsisting relationship cannot subsequently be criminalised merely because the parties part ways.

"Physical intimacy that occurred during the currency of...