HC quashes proceedings against man who married minor girl whom he impregnated
The Kerala High Court has quashed the criminal proceedings against a person who married the girl he had impregnated, while she was a minor, after kidnapping her from the custody of her parents.
The court, which highlighted the legal position that heinous and serious offences involving mental depravity or offences such as murder, rape, and dacoity cannot appropriately be quashed though the survivor or the family of the survivor have settled the dispute, decided on quashing the proceedings on humanitarian conditions as the accused married the survivor and they were living happily with two children.
The counsel for the accused informed the court that the matter had been settled and the survivor had filed an affidavit supporting settlement, by stating that the accused married her and they had been living happily as husband and wife.
Issuing the order, Justice A. Badharudeen noted that the settlement arrived at between the offender and the survivor can have no legal sanction at all in serious offences such as murder, rape, dacoity, or other offences of mental depravity under the Indian Penal Code or offences of moral turpitude under special statutes, such as the Prevention of Corruption Act or the offences committed by public servants while working in that capacity.
Grave or serious offences or offences which involve moral turpitude or having a harmful effect on the social and moral fabric of society or involving matters concerning public policy, cannot be construed between two individuals or groups only, as such offences have the potential to impact society at large, the court observed.
Effacing abominable offences through quashing process would not only send a wrong signal to the community, but may also accord an undue benefit to unscrupulous habitual or professional offenders, who can secure a “settlement” through duress, threats, social boycotts, bribes or other dubious means, the court noted.
However, the court noted that there was no necessity to continue criminal proceedings so as to retain them in the hazards of litigation and to collapse their married life and the well-being of the children.
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