Rajasthan High Court Quashes POCSO Case On Being Informed Of Victim's Marriage With Accused

Recently, Rajasthan High Court decided to rescind criminal proceedings against a POCSO accused, after being informed that the victim/survivor is living a happily married life with the former.

Before quashing the rape case ongoing before Jaipur Metropolitan I Special Judge (POCSO), the single judge bench of Justice Mahendar Kumar Goyal observed that the survivor herself has stated before the court about the marriage between her and the accused.

“From the material available on record, it is established that the petitioner and the respondent no.3 have solemnized marriage and are living a happily married life with a three-year-old girl child born out of their relationship. The parties are present in the court and this court has also verified the aforesaid…”, the bench sitting at Jaipur added.

The counsel for respondents 2 (father) and 3 (survivor) did not express any objections against the quashing of F.I.R. either. In the totality of circumstances as well as because both of them have a three-year-old girl child born out of their relationship, the court deemed it fit to allow the criminal miscellaneous petition and drop charges against the accused. While allowing the petition, the court extensively relied upon Tarun Vaishnav v. State of Rajasthan & Anr, 2022 Livelaw (Raj) 257, Dalveer Singh v. State of Rajasthan (2019) and Juber Ali & Ors. v. State of Rajasthan & Ors (2023) where identical issues were resolved by the court.

In the cases relied upon by Justice Goyal, charges were dropped against the accused persons, despite the offence being grave, for a plethora of reasons such as to ensure the well-being of the distressed families, survivors and the children born out of said relationships and, in some instances, to preserve subsequent marriages solemnised between the accused and the survivor.

In this case, the accused had allegedly raped the minor by giving a false promise of marriage. F.I.R was registered under the provisions of Indian Penal Code, Protection of Children From Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. It was respondent no.2, the survivor's father, who lodged the complaint before the police. During the trial proceedings, on 17.10.2022, marriage was solemnised between the survivor and the rape accused.

Advocate Tribhuvan Narayan Singh appeared for the petitioner/accused. Advocate Rajendra Singh Tanwar represented the complainant father and his survivor daughter. Public Prosecutor Riyasat Ali represented the State.

Case No: SB Criminal Miscellaneous Petition No.7901/2023

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Raj) 17

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