Case Details:
Case Name: Fakre Alam @ Shozil v State of UP and ors
Case No.: Application U/S 482 No. 41580 of 2022
Bench: Hon’ble Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal, J.
Allahabad High Court quashed the proceedings under POCSO Act as well as under Section 376 I.P.C., where no case was made out from the material available on record but the investigating agency filed charge sheet in routine manner without looking into the material collected during the investigation.
The Court finds that although no specific provision has been incorporated in the Cr.P.C. for compounding any offence other than those mentioned in Section 320 Cr.P.C., there may still be cases where victim would prepare to condone the conduct of the accused even though the charge is not compoundable. In such cases Court can exercise its inherent power u/s 482 Cr.P.C. even the offence is non-compoundable u/s 320 Cr.P.C. Though the High Court should not normally interfere with the criminal proceeding involving sexual offence against women and children only on the basis of ground of settlement, however it is not completely foreclosed in exercising its extraordinary power u/s 482 Cr.P.C. to quash such proceeding.
The Court opined that in such cases, a holistic approach ought to be adopted considering issue from different perspective, in order to identify the cases fit for compromise, keeping in mind:
(i) the nature and effect of offence on the consciousnesses of society;
(ii) the seriousness of injury, if any;
(iii) voluntary nature of compromise between the accused and victim; and
(iv) conduct to the accused person, prior to and after the occurrence of the purported offence or other relevant considerations.
The Court observed that the victim in her statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C. stated that she willingly married to the applicant and she has been residing with him as his wife and the victim also stated that applicant has not committed any sexual offence against her. The Court further observed that as per the medical examination no injury was found on the victim and her age as per medical record come out to be above 18 years. The victim also claims that the mother of the victim just to extract five lakh rupees from the husband (applicant), lodged the present false case.
Read the judgement here: A482(A)_41580_2022_Fakre Alam