Love affair no ground for bail in POCSO case, SC sets aside Jharkhand HC order

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said that grounds like there was a love affair between the girl and the accused and there was alleged refusal to marry will have no bearing on the grant of bail in the POCSO case.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant set aside the order of a single judge of Jharkhand High Court granting bail to an accused in a case registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012 and IPC.

It said, The High Court was manifestly in error in allowing the application for bail. The reason that from the statement under Section 164 and the averments in the FIR, it appears that 'there was a love affair' between the appellant and the second respondent and that the case was instituted on the refusal of the second respondent to marry the appellant, is specious.

The bench said, Once, prima facie, it appears from the material before the Court that the appellant was barely thirteen years of age on the date when the alleged offence took place, both the grounds, namely that 'there was a love affair' between the appellant (girl) and the second respondent (accused) as well as the alleged refusal to marry, are circumstances which will have no bearing on the grant of bail .

The bench in its order passed on Monday said that "having regard to the age of the prosecutrix and the nature and gravity of the crime, no case for the grant of bail was established".

The order of the High Court granting bail has to be interfered with since the circumstances which prevailed with the High Court are extraneous in view of the age of the prosecutrix, having regard to the provisions of Section 376 of IPC and Section 6 of POCSO. We accordingly set aside the impugned order of the High Court dated August 2, 2021 , it said.

The bench directed that the accused should surrender forthwith to custody.

Senior advocate Anand Grover and advocate Fauzia Shakil, appearing on behalf of the girl, submitted that the date of birth of the victim is January 1, 2005, and at the time of the alleged offence, she was just about thirteen

years of age.

On the contention of advocate Rajesh Ranjan, appearing for the accused, that he is a student studying in an engineering college and he will not get bail throughout the trial, the bench requested that in the facts and circumstances, the Special Judge, POCSO, who is in charge of the trial shall complete the trial within six months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order.