‘Bare Technicalities Shouldn’t Become Shackles Of Victimhood’: Orissa HC Calls For Sensitivity Over Delay In Lodging FIR In Minors’ Rape Cases

The Orissa High Court has recently held that Courts must show sensitivity while deciding the effect of delay in lodging of First Information Report (FIR) in cases involving rape of minors. While highlighting the difficulties of such victims, the Single Judge Bench of Justice Sangam Kumar Sahoo observed,

“Even after more than seven decades of independence, unfortunately the women of this country and more particularly, the minor girls have not got true freedom from the vulture like lust of perpetrators of sex crimes. However, the crimes are not end in themselves, rather those have spiraling effect on not only the psyche of prosecutrix but also on her and her family’s social repute. These factors often impede the hapless victims to come forward, report the crime and surrender the hopes of justice to the judicial system.”

The Court was dealing with a case where the appellant-father was accused of repeatedly raping his minor daughter. The said overt act continued for a long period of time, i.e. for about seven months and the victim could not complain the same to anyone considering the nature of relationship she shared with the appellant.

When the appellant did not desist from assaulting the victim, she reported the matter to her mother and they lodged an FIR. Upon completion of investigation and conclusion of trial, the Court found the appellant guilty under Sections 354/354A(2)/354B/376(2)(f)(i)(k)(n) of the IPC as well as Sections 6 and 10 of the POCSO Act.

Being aggrieved by the order of conviction and sentence, the appellant approached the High Court where one of the contentions raised on his behalf was delay in lodging of FIR. The counsel for the appellant vehemently argued that the series of assaults was alleged to have started during July 2015 but the FIR was lodged only in February 2016.

It was submitted that there was an undue delay on the part of the victim and her mother to approach the police to report the incident, which makes the prosecution case doubtful. However, the Court outrightly denied such contention basing on the evidence of the victim which was duly corroborated by her mother.

The Court stressed that in such cases, the trial Courts must give an empathetic view while deciding the effect of delay on the prosecution case as it is not improbable for a family to take time before reporting such incidents to police, especially when the predator is none else than the father of the victim.

“Their compulsions should be acknowledged by the Courts in an empathetic manner and the judicial institutions must ensure that bare technicalities of criminal jurisprudence do not become shackles of victimhood, forcing the victims to silently digest their pain. Hence, delay in lodging F.I.R. in cases of child rape should be taken with much sensitivity and the concerned Courts must judiciously weigh all the surrounding factors which led to such delay. It is nothing but adding a pinch of salt to her injury to discard the otherwise meritorious case of the prosecutrix merely because she failed to knock at the portals of justice in a time-bound manner,” the Court added.

Therefore, considering the entire set of facts and the surrounding circumstances, the Court was of the considered opinion that mere delay in lodging the FIR in this case cannot compel the Court to reject the prosecution which otherwise seems trustworthy.

Accordingly, having regard for the testimony of the victim and her mother and other material evidence available on record, the Court upheld the conviction and sentence awarded to the appellant and dismissed the appeal.

Case Title: TB v. State of Odisha

Case No.: JCRLA No. 75 of 2019

Date of Judgment: August 2, 2023

Counsel for the Appellant: Mr. Rajib Lochan Pattnaik, Amicus Curiae

Counsel for the State: Mr. Manoranjan Mishra, Addl. Standing Counsel

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Ori) 85

Click Here To Read/Download Judgment