Bangaluru: The Karnataka High Court has allowed a compromise settlement between the families of two minors who had allegedly engaged in a sexual act, leading to the boy being charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The families of the two children had reached to an agreement and did not wish to pursue the case further. The HC noted that in this eventuality, the boy would be acquitted eventually. While the case is still pending in the lower court, the High Court was recently approached about dismissing it.
The boy and the girl, who were classmates, had eloped. After the complaint, they were found together in another district. The boy was charged with rape under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 5 of the POCSO Act.
When the complaint was filed in December 2021, Justice M Nagaprasanna quashed the proceedings pending in a lower court against the minor boy when the complaint was filed in December 2021.
“A romantic love between a boy and a girl of the age of adolescence, sometimes arising out of infatuations, results in the boy embroiling himself into the vortex of the provisions of POCSO Act. It is in these peculiar facts, I deem it appropriate to take note of the settlement.” While the lower court proceedings were quashed, the HC pointed out that youngsters are not aware of POCSO.
“The act has been done in the frenzy of youth, owing to human curiosity coupled with biological cravings. These are acts which are entirely different from those which become offences under Section 5, which deals with aggravated penetrative sexual assault. These provisions are not known to students, who are themselves, minors and get infatuated,” it said.
The court said it would take note of the settlement, accept it and free the petitioner from the mesh of crime he is enmeshed in, failing which, the future of a student would be put in insurmountable jeopardy.
The HC found that the two minors had indulged in sexual acts, but it would not amount to a crime as envisioned under the POCSO Act.
