Delhi High Court: Anoop Kumar Mendiratta, J. rejected bail to an accused allegedly kidnapping and raping a minor girl of 14 years. The Court held that merely because sometimes sexual abuse results in tying of knot between the victim and the accused in violation of provisions of law or results in birth of a child, it does not mitigate the act of the petitioner in any manner, since the consent of a minor is immaterial and inconsequential in law.
A complaint was filed by the mother of the victim alleging that some unknown person had kidnapped her daughter of 15 years, missing since 09-07-2019. On investigation, the complainant was charged for offences under Sections 363, 366 and 376 Penal Code, 1860 and Section 4 &6 Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (‘POCSO Act’) as the victim was recovered along with her 8-month-old female child from the house of petitioner/accused and was about 1½ months pregnant. The complainant was arrested and thus, the present bail application was filed contending that the victim is wife of the petitioner-accused and is suffering on account of incarceration of the petitioner and he needs to take care of his wife and child.
State submitted that that victim was merely 14 years and 06 months of age, at the time she was lured and kidnapped by the petitioner and the entire machinery was kept in the dark by the petitioner who deliberately concealed the particulars of the victim and misled the investigating agency on the wrong path despite filing of the Habeas Corpus petition by the mother of the victim.
The Court noted that alleged marriage with a minor as claimed by the petitioner is in violation of the provisions of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.
Placing reliance on Independent Thought v. Union of India, (2017) 10 SC 800 and Jayanti Lal Dabgar v State of Gujarat, (2015) 7 SCC 359 wherein it was observed that sexual intercourse or sexual act by a man, even with his own wife under 15 years of age, has been classified as rape, the Court opined that sexual relationship with minor is prohibited and the law clearly treats them as offences even if the same is based upon alleged consent of a minor.
The Court observed that such incidents of luring a minor and entering into physical relationship, accused thereafter claiming consent of the minor, cannot be treated in a routine manner. Merely because the petitioner has claimed that marriage had been performed with the victim in a temple, the same cannot sanctify the offence as the victim was a minor and under 15 years of age at the time of the incident. The claim of marriage is also yet to be proved on record.
Thus, the Court rejected the bail being devoid of evidence in favour of accused suggesting consent of the parents to take their minor daughter away from their lawful custody along with constantly misleading the Court during investigation and his claim of consent by minor for sexual intercourse being irrelevant.
[Jagbir v. State, 2022 SCC OnLine Del 2159, decided on 22-07-2022]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Mr. Lokesh Kumar Mishra, Mr. Himanshu Sharma and Mr. Haider Khan, Advocates, for the Petitioner;
Mr. Adhishwar Suri, Advocate for Ms. Supriya Juneja, Advocate for complainant with Complainant in-person, for State.
*Arunima Bose, Editorial Assistant has reported this brief.