Award Interim Compensation; Periodically Conduct Counselling Of 14 Yr Old Rape Victim: P&H High Court Directs DLSA

The Punjab & Haryana High Court on Wednesday (25th November) directed the Secretary, District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), Mewat at Nuh as well as the Secretary, DLSA, Faridabad, to award interim compensation to a 14 year old victim. The Bench of Justice Arvind Singh Sangwan also directed the DLSA, Mewat at Nuh to appoint a lady Counsellor, who will periodically conduct counselling of the minor victim for her rehabilitation and to take care of her health condition as she has become a mother at a very young age of 14 years. The matter before the Court As per the FIR, taking advantage of Victim's (P) father's absence, one Janista lured P that her brother-in-law wants to talk to her. Thereafter, the petitioner – Shakeel and the co-accused Shamshad started talking to her, and on 05.02.2020, both the accused came to P's house and lured her and took her to a near forest where they both committed rape against her wishes. In this process, they even took obscene photographs of P on their phone and some of her photographs were made viral on the internet. Again, the allegations are that on this pretext and by threatening, the victim was repeatedly raped by them and because of fear, P did not disclose anything to anyone. On 29.05.2020, when P suddenly became unwell, she was taken to a doctor, who informed that she is pregnant by 3-4 months. When the complainant (Father of P) and his wife (Mother of P) enquired about it from the victim, she told about the rape committed by the accused persons. The FIR was registered on 01.06.2020 and an anticipatory bail application was filed by the petitioner – Shakeel in the case registered under Sections 363, 366-A, 188, 506 of IPC, 6 and 19 of the POCSO Act and 67-B of the IT Act. Court's order As per the order dated 06.10.2020, a report was called from the Chief Medical Officer, Nuh, about the health condition of the victim, and it was directed that the Chief Medical Officer, Nuh, will examine the victim and inform whether her health and safety allow to terminate the pregnancy, at this stage. Later, on 16.11.2020, noticing the fact that the minor victim had already delivered a child, the said C.W.P. was adjourned to 26.11.2020. After hearing the counsel for the parties and considering the serious allegations against the petitioner of committing rape with a minor girl aged 14 years, who became pregnant and delivered a child on 05.11.2020, the Court did not find any ground to grant the concession of anticipatory bail to the petitioner and accordingly, the petition was dismissed. Further the Court took into account the fact that the minor victim aged 14 years, "remained under constant threat to her life since February, 2020, when the offence of rape was committed for the first time, till date, despite having given birth to a child, who is stated to be in a Charitable Hospital/Society at Faridabad", the Court issued directions to DLSA (as mentioned above). The Court issued these directions in view of the directions given by the Apex Court in Suo Motu Writ Petition (Criminal) No.24 of 2014, initiated by the Apex Court regarding granting compensation to rape victim reported as 2014 (2) RCR (Criminal) 379, wherein the Apex Court had held that "the Court has a right to award interim compensation to the victim and further directed the State of West Bengal to provide adequate compensation for the rehabilitation of the victim" The DLSA, Mewat at Nuh as well as DLSA, Faridabad have been directed to furnish a report in the month of May, 2021, "about the action taken in this regard and the interim compensation provided to the minor victim as well as the arrangements made for the upbringing of the minor child." Lastly, the Superintendent of Police, Mewat at Nuh, has also been directed to look into the threat perception to the family of the complainant as well as the minor girl/victim in the light of the judgment of Apex Court in Nipun Saxena and another vs Union of India and others 2019(1) RCR (Criminal) 334, wherein guidelines are issued for dealing with victims under POCSO Act, and furnish an affidavit about the investigation of the case to the Registrar General of this Court Case title - Shakeel v. State of Haryana [CRM-M No.38402 of 2020 (O&M)] Click here to download order[Read Order]

Award Interim Compensation; Periodically Conduct Counselling Of 14 Yr Old Rape Victim: P&H High Court Directs DLSA

Sparsh Upadhyay

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