Sexual Intercourse by Deceitful Means or False Promise of Marriage Under the BNS (Section 69): a New Offence (2026)

Explainer · BNS · Offences Against Women

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

For years, cases of sex obtained on a false promise of marriage reached the courts through the law of rape, because consent given on a misconception of fact is not valid consent. The result was uneven, and the facts did not always fit the offence of rape. Since 1 July 2024 the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) has replaced the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and it creates a separate offence for this conduct in Section 69. This explainer sets out what Section 69 covers, why it is a new provision with no exact IPC equivalent, the punishment, and whether the offence is cognizable and bailable. Last verified October 2026.

01The problem this section answers

The old law had no direct offence for sex obtained by a false promise of marriage. Complaints were charged as rape, on the reasoning that a woman’s consent was based on a misconception of fact and was therefore not real consent. Courts had to decide, case by case, whether a promise was false from the start or a genuine intention that later failed, and whether rape was the right label at all.

Section 69 of the BNS takes this conduct out of that grey area and makes it a distinct offence. It covers sexual intercourse obtained by deceitful means, including a false promise to marry, where the act does not amount to rape. It gives prosecutors and courts a clearer provision, and it draws a line between a broken engagement and a planned deceit.

Section 69 of the BNS is a new offence for sex obtained by deceit or a false promise of marriage, where the act does not amount to rape. There is no exact IPC equivalent.

02What Section 69 says

Section 69 of the BNS punishes a person who, by deceitful means or by making a promise to marry a woman without any intention of keeping it, has sexual intercourse with her, where that intercourse does not amount to the offence of rape. The core ideas are these:

• There must be sexual intercourse with a woman that does not amount to rape. If the facts make out rape, the rape provisions apply instead.
• The intercourse must be obtained by deceitful means, or by a promise to marry made with no intention of fulfilling it.
• The false promise must be false when it was made. A promise made in good faith that later fails is not, by itself, this offence.

An explanation attached to the section says that deceitful means include a false promise of employment or promotion, inducement, or a marriage after suppressing one’s identity. So the section is wider than marriage alone; it reaches other serious deceits used to obtain intercourse.

03The old-to-new mapping

This is one of the few BNS offences that is genuinely new, so the mapping is not a renumbering.

Under the IPC, these facts were usually prosecuted under the rape provisions, using the idea that consent on a misconception of fact is not valid, and sometimes under cheating. There was no stand-alone section. So a search for older authorities should look at rape and consent case law, while a charge drawn today uses Section 69 of the BNS.

04Punishment and classification

The punishment under Section 69 is imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and the person shall also be liable to a fine.

On classification, the offence is cognizable, so the police can register an FIR and investigate without a Magistrate’s prior order. It is non-bailable, so bail is at the discretion of the court and not a matter of right. It is triable by a Court of Session.

05What is new, and what to prove

The real change is that the conduct now has its own offence, with its own ingredients, instead of being forced into the rape provisions.

To make out Section 69, the prosecution has to show that the promise or inducement was false when it was made, and that the intercourse was obtained because of it. The practical difficulty is the same one the courts faced under the old law: telling a planned deceit apart from a relationship that ended. Evidence of intention at the time of the promise, and of the deceit, is what carries the case.

For related offences against women and marriage that may arise on the same facts, see the explainers on cruelty under Section 85, enticing a married woman under Section 84, and bigamy under Section 82.

06Where Claw fits

Claw is an all-in-one legaltech platform for Indian advocates, law firms, and corporate legal teams, combining AI-based case search, an AI legal assistant (Legal GPT), case management, and compliance automation across all Indian courts and tribunals.

Because Section 69 is new, there is little settled case law, and the authorities that matter are the older rape and consent decisions that shaped it. Claw lets you search more than 30 crore judgments, reaching the Supreme Court from 1950 and the High Courts from 1990, and returns what it finds in under five seconds, so you can pull both the first decisions on Section 69 as they appear and the older consent rulings courts still lean on. It also follows live cases, orders and hearings under this section, by party or advocate name, across 9,102 courts, benches and forums. Open a free Claw account to search these authorities and track a Section 69 matter. For the wider view, see case search across Indian courts.

Claw does not file a case or give legal advice, and it does not use customer case documents to train its AI models.

07Sources and further reading

• India Code (official text of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023): indiacode.nic.in
• Ministry of Home Affairs (new criminal laws): mha.gov.in
• BNS Section 69 (reference text): devgan.in
• Claw: clawlaw.in

This explainer is general information, not legal advice. Section numbers and punishments change through amendments and notifications, so check the current official text and take advice from counsel before you act.

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