Supreme Court
– Photo: ANI
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A sexual harassment case cannot be quashed merely because a settlement has been reached between the complainant and the accused. The Supreme Court gave this important decision on Thursday. The court canceled the order of the Rajasthan High Court, in which relief was given to the teacher accused of sexually assaulting a minor student and ordered quashing of the case against him.
A bench of Justices CT Ravikumar and PV Sanjay Kumar delivered the verdict. The court said that the decision of the High Court is cancelled. FIR and criminal proceedings should be proceeded as per law. We have not commented on the merits of the case. The Court also thanked Amicus Curiae R Basant for his assistance. The decision was reserved for October 2023. The question in the case was whether the High Court, in exercise of its powers under Section 482 CrPC, can quash a sexual assault case on the basis of an agreement between the accused and the victim?
The matter came to light when an appeal was filed in the case of harassment of a 15-year-old girl. In this, an FIR was registered on the basis of the father's complaint. However, a settlement was later reached between the girl's family and the accused, based on which the accused moved the Rajasthan High Court to quash the case. The court accepted the petition and quashed the criminal case.
The petition on which the judgment has now been delivered has been filed on behalf of a disaffected third party, Ramji Lal Bairwa. In this, objection has been raised to the order of the High Court. At the beginning of the hearing of the case, the top court had said that in a criminal case the unaffected party cannot file a petition. However, the court later decided to examine the issue raised and ordered that the accused and the victim's father be made parties to the case.
In an order passed in September 2022, a bench of then Chief Justice of India UU Lalit and Justice JB Pardiwala had appointed senior advocate and former Kerala High Court judge R Basanth as amicus curiae in the case to assist the court.
