Under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, A is accused of rape. What defence is permissible to him…

Under section 63 of the BNS (formerly section 375 IPC), legally valid consent of a woman to sexual intercourse defeats the non-consent descriptions of rape and is therefore a permissible defence. Love, proposed marriage or loss of self-control is not itself a defence. Consent is not an unrestricted defence: under section 63(vi) intercourse with a woman under eighteen is rape with or without her consent, consent obtained in the vitiating circumstances listed in section 63 does not suffice, and Explanation 2 requires an unequivocal voluntary agreement — a woman who does not physically resist is not, by that reason alone, regarded as consenting.