Outraging modesty a personal offence, can’t have far reaching impact: HC

Nagpur: Coming to the rescue of a youth who allegedly molested a girl but later amicably settled the case, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court quashed an FIR lodged against him at Sakkardara police station.
The court clarified that since the offence is about outraging modesty of a woman which is of personal nature, by no stretch of imagination it can be said that it has far-reaching societal impact.

The bench also terminated criminal proceedings filed against the petitioner by the police before Judicial Magistrate first Class (JMFC) last year stating that it would lead to absolving of all charges made in the FIR against him.

“By the time the matter was settled, we can very well foresee that in situation if both parties are compelled to go on with the trial, it would be nothing but wastage of court hours, as well as cause hardship to the litigants and respondents,” a division bench comprising justices Ravi Deshpande and Vinay Joshi said.

The FIR was lodged on February 27 last year by a 20-year-old survivor alleging that the accused caught her hand, forcibly pulled her at his person, and by holding hairs dragged her to some extent. Accordingly, a case was registered against the petitioner under Sections 354 and 323 of the IPC.

After completion of investigation, charge sheet was filed against him. The case is pending with JMFC for recording evidence of prosecution witnesses.

The youth then moved the HC for quashing of FIR contending that the matter has been amicably settled between the both parties, who are familiar with each other. He pointed out that the incident is of personal nature and not against the public at large, nor it’s a heinous one.

To maintain harmony and good relations between both the families, the petitioner prayed for revoking HC’s extraordinary jurisdiction in terms of Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

The survivor also filed an affidavit on September 28 and also appeared in HC on October 22, confirming that their dispute was resolved and she had no objection on quashing the FIR.

The judges observed that powers of quashing may be exercised where the parties settled the dispute, depending upon the facts and circumstances of the case. “The HC must have due regard to nature and gravity of crime and its societal impact. Thus, it’s abundantly clear that inherent powers of this court are of wide plenitude with no statutory limitation, but those have to be exercised cautiously depending upon the facts of each case.”

They added that while exercising its powers, the HC must consider whether it would be unfair or contrary to interest of justice to continue with the criminal proceedings or its continuation would tantamount to abuse of process of law despite amicable settlement.

“The inherent powers are possessed by HC to exercise them in appropriate cases, so as to avoid futile exercise of conducting trial despite settlement and also to maintain the harmony between both sides. It appears that whole idea behind investing inherent powers is to do complete and substantial justice for which the court exists. We’re of the opinion that such dead litigations should not breathe furthermore,” justices Deshpande and Joshi said, before allowing the plea.