New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has observed that quashing an FIR registered under the POCSO Act on the grounds that the victim has attained majority and has decided to compromise the matter is not possible as it will 'go against the intention of the legislation which has brought out the special enactment to protect the interests of children".
A single-judge bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad, in an order passed on March 24, noted that: "Exercising jurisdiction under Section 482 CrPC to quash an offence under POCSO Act would go against the intention of the legislature which has brought out the special enactment to protect the interests of children".
On this, the court ruled that the FIR in the case cannot be quashed on the ground that the victim after attaining majority has decided to compromise the matter with the accused.
The court was hearing a petition seeking quashing of an FIR registered at Shakarpur Police Station involving Section 10 of POCSO Act and various sections of the IPC, on the ground that the prosecutrix or the complainant and the petitioners or the accused have compromised the matter.
The case dates back to 2018 where the victim, as per the chargesheet, alleges that one of her relatives, one Dinesh Sharma, came to her house from Jalandhar in Punjab in search of a job, following which he started doing work for her father and stayed back with them.
However, soon the accused started "looking at her with strange eyes" when none of her parents were home. She also alleged that he once "picked her up from behind and took her to another room with wrong intentions". Later, Dinesh and some of his friends started threatening her of leaking her private photographs and of killing her parents. After this, she approached the Shakarpur Police Station and lodged an FIR in the case.
Justice Prasad further stated that, "No doubt, under Section 482 of the Code, the High Court has the power to quash even in those offences which are not compoundable, where the parties have settled the matter between themselves, but power has to be exercised fairly and with caution".
"Offence of rape is a heinous crime punishable under Section 376 IPC," the court noted.