Rajasthan High Court Sets Aside Order Convicting POCSO Accused Within 8 Days Of Filing Of Chargesheet, Orders Fresh Trial

Observing that there was an undue haste in conducting the trial, the Rajasthan High Court has set aside conviction in a POCSO case and remanded the matter back to the trial court for conducting a fresh trial. The trial court had passed the judgment within eight days of filing of chargesheet. Justice Farjand Ali said there is no rat race or competition between the trial judges to see who finishes first and that justice should not be approached from that kind of ambitious perspective. A path in the middle needs to be carved out to conduct the trial in a regular, systematic manner while finding balance between undue haste and undue delay, said the court. “Quick justice becomes weak justice if not accomplished with compliance of statutory procedure and established conventions. If the accused is guilty of committing an offence then the trial must be concluded in an expeditious manner so that the memory of the witnesses does not fade away but in the present case, the statements and testimonies were recorded too expeditiously which led to re-traumatising of the victim as well as stymying of the right of accused to a trial that is marked by justice, fairness and freedom from bias.” The court said the conduct of the presiding officer was unreasonable, procedurally unfair and not in accordance with law. However, it clarified that the same may not have been intended. "In the willingness to dispose of the case quickly, the presiding officer conducted the trial in such a hurried manner that several deficiencies were overlooked or neglected or missed. There are several defects and contrarieties that have been noticed by this Court while going through the material available on record," said the court.Background As per the prosecution, the victim, a nine-year-old girl, was raped by the accused-appellant while she was on her way back home from a shop in the village at around 5 p.m. on 26.09.2021. Once recovered, she was immediately taken to the hospital, where she narrated the incident to her father and was medically examined. The father then reported the incident to the police. The police recorded the prosecutrix's statement under Section 161 and 164 CrPC, and the accused-appellant was detained and interrogated. He was arrested and a charge-sheet was filed against him on 27.09.2021. Cognizance was taken by the trial court and the accused-appellant was examined under Section 313 of CrPC, during which he refuted the testimonies of all the prosecution witnesses, except for the part of the prosecutrix's testimony where he admitted to being intoxicated. The trial court convicted the accused-respondent on 05.10.2021 under Section 5(m)/6 of the POCSO Act and sentenced him to twenty years of rigorous imprisonment, along with a fine of Rs. 2,00,000/-. The accused-appellant then filed an appeal against the said judgement of conviction and order of sentence.The State said the matter was sensitive and it was decided quickly for the sole reason that justice be delivered to the victim without any undue delay. VerdictThe court at the outset noted that cases involving rape of a girl child need to be dealt with carefully and with a certain degree of sensitivity. It referred to the parameters laid down in Mohd. Alam Vs. The State (NCT of Delhi).However, Justice Ali said the victim was made to tell and retell the horrific incident that happened with her at least four times within a span of few days."She is a tweenager who was badly injured and found herself in a befuddled and semi- conscious state. There was no such haste for which she was made to relive the entire incident multiple times in front of authorities and unknown individuals and made to depose when she was in a traumatized state of mind and was facing an utterly unpleasant upheaval," said the court.It also observed that if the victim is given a reasonable time period to cool down from the shock and trauma, she will be in a better frame of mind to give her statement and will be able to remember and re-tell the incident that happened with her more accurately. "It is a natural phenomenon that when our mind and body have just been through a major mishap, we require time to step out of the discombobulation caused by the unfortunate episode, understand and process the incident that occurred and come to terms with the new reality that starts to exist after the episode," said the court. Justice Ali also said there was no need to record the statement of the victim in such haste when she was severely frightened by the incident and as per the report, she underwent a surgery on the very same day and was in an intensive care unit of the hospital."So in the view of this Court, she was in trauma and the presence of police officer, employees of the court, judicial officer, medical officer etc. who were making her reply to the questionnaire was no less traumatic than what she had already endured."The bench also observed that the trial court did not...

Rajasthan High Court Sets Aside Order Convicting POCSO Accused Within 8 Days Of Filing Of Chargesheet, Orders Fresh Trial

Bhavya Singh

Tags