Establishing a sexual relationship with a woman on a false promise of marriage amounts to rape, a New Delhi court has held while sentencing a man to seven years in jail for sexually exploiting his neighbour.

"The so called consent under a false promise to marriage is no consent. Accordingly, the consent obtained in establishing a physical relationship like husband and wife under false promise to marry the latter is no consent as per law," additional sessions judge Mahavir Singhal said.

Enumerating the difference between 'will' and 'consent', the court said that a nod for sexual relations obtained by a man on the false pretext would not amount to a 'legal or valid' consent to save him from punishment for rape.

Even if the woman is assumed to be a willing partner in the physical relations, the fact that the accused had no intention to marry her would make it a case where the consent was given under a misconception of fact, nullifying the efficacy of the nod, it observed in an order on Wednesday.

In the present case, convict Chhotey Lal, father of six children, had eloped with his neighbour in east Delhi on September 2, 2004 and took her to various places, including Jaipur and Chandigarh.

According to the girl, the duo established sexual relations after Lal assured her that he would get married to her very soon. Meanwhile, the girl's father filed a missing person's report with the police.

The police detained Lal and the girl on March 3, 2005 at Sarai Kale Khan Bus Terminal in New Delhi, while they were returning and the accused was prosecuted for the offences of rape after abducting the victim.