Love affair, child birth no ground to quash case under POCSO: HC

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has held that neither a love affair between a minor girl and an adult man, nor the fact that their families permitted the marriage and she subsequently gave birth to a child, can be grounds to quash criminal proceedings under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

- Urvi Mahajani

A bench of Justices Urmila Joshi-Phalke and Nandesh Deshpande dismissed a plea filed by a 29-year-old man and his parents seeking to quash an FIR lodged against them under the POCSO Act and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.

According to the prosecution, the man married the girl on June 2, 2024, as per Muslim rites, with the consent of both families. At the time, she was be-

Case details

29-year-old man married a minor girl in June 2024, with family consent; she later gave birth while still a minor