Karnataka HC allows compromise in POCSO case as victim marries accused

The Karnataka High Court has allowed compromise in a case registered under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012 considering the fact that the victim has married the accused. Both the victim girl and the accused had submitted a compromise petition under Section 320 read with section 482 of the CrPC.

The victim was 17 years old when her father had registered the complaint on March 6, 2019. On October 11, 2019, the victim had deposed and submitted that it was consensual. A memo was submitted before the high court stating that both the victim and the accused have mutually agreed to compound the offences alleged and have legally married on November 9, 2020, the day he was released on bail after 18 months in judicial custody. The memo also stated that a girl child was born out of the wedlock on December 16, 2021.

Justice M Nagaprasanna quashed the proceedings against the accused pending before a special court in Bengaluru rural district. The court noted that in several rape cases, the high court has quashed proceedings against the accused persons on the strength of the marriage with the victims and it is appropriate to follow those judgments in the case on hand.

“In such cases, the prosecution can hardly prove the guilt against the petitioner. If the victim is going to turn hostile in a trial at a later point in time and the petitioner gets acquitted of all the offences, the sword of crime would have torn the soul of the accused. It is not the end result that is painful or otherwise, but the process in the criminal justice system that generates such pain. In the teeth of these facts, glaring enough they are, if the court would shut its doors to the couple who are married and bringing up the child, the entire proceeding would result in miscarriage of justice. It is therefore, I deem it appropriate, to accept the settlement between the parties and terminate the proceedings qua the petitioner,” the court said.