Identify Cases Involving Consensual Relationship Of Minors, Will Consider Quashing Them If Against Their Interest, Future: Madras High Court To Police

The Madras High Court has directed the State Police to ascertain the number of pending cases before the Courts/Juvenile Justice Boards involving consensual relationships of minor children. The court said that the same would allow it to deal with the cases and quash the proceedings, in appropriate cases, if found to be against the future and interest of the children or if found to be an abuse of the process of law. The division bench of Justice Anand Venkatesh and Justice Sundar Mohan - which was constituted to monitor the implementation of provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Juvenile Justice Act on the judicial side, had earlier sought a status report from the DGP regarding details of cases pending before the Courts/Juvenile Justice Board from 2010 to 2013, pertaining to victims and children in conflict with law. The court, on perusing this report, noted that out of a total of 1728 cases registered, 1274 cases are pending which could be divided into three heads - cases that are under investigation, cases where investigation has been completed but the final report has not been taken on file and cases pending trial. It then directed the DGP to ascertain the cases involving consensual relationships out of the 1274 cases. “Having gathered this data, the next step to be taken is to ascertain all those cases falling under the category of consensual relationship. Out of the 1274 cases, it has to be ascertained as to how many cases fall under the category of consensual relationship. If those cases are segregated from the pending cases, it will be easy for this Court to deal with them and in appropriate cases, this Court can also exercise its jurisdiction and quash the proceedings if the proceedings are ultimately going to be against the interest and future of the children involved in those cases and it is found to be an abuse of process of Court / abuse of process of law,” the court observed. The court also directed the DGP to prepare a brief note on the facts of the case accompanied with the Section 164 CrPC statement of the victim to help the court to understand and take a decision. “While identifying those cases, a brief note on the facts of the case shall be prepared in order to enable this Court to understand and take a decision accordingly. The brief note shall also be accompanied with the 164 statement recorded from the victim,” the court said. The court has also directed the police to come up with a standard operating procedure for conducting potency test using blood samples as the mechanism of collecting sperm samples from the offender was a thing of past. Case Title: Kajendran v Superintendent of Police and Others Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Mad) 193 Case No: HCP 2182 of 2022Click here to read/download the judgment

Identify Cases Involving Consensual Relationship Of Minors, Will Consider Quashing Them If Against Their Interest, Future: Madras High Court To Police

Upasana Sajeev

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