Juveniles Are Being Treated Too Leniently; Legislature Has Still Not Learnt Any Lessons From Horrors Of Nirbhaya: Madhya Pradesh HC
The Madhya Pradesh High Court forwarded the “demonic conduct” of a juvenile accused of rape to the Department of Legal Affairs while observing that the legislature has not learnt its lessons from the horrors of the ‘Nirbhaya’ rape case.
The Court said that juveniles in this country are being treated rather too leniently.
The Court dismissed the appeal challenging the judgement of the trial court which found the juvenile (appellant) guilty under Section 376(2)(i)(k) of the IPC and Sections 5(m)(i) and 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
A Single Bench of Justice Subodh Abhyankar observed, “This Court is once again at pains to observe that juveniles in this country are being treated rather too leniently, and that the Legislature, to the utter misfortune of the victims of such crimes, has still not learnt any lessons from the horrors of Nirbhaya. Looking to the overwhelming medical evidence available in the present case, it does not taken an expert to see as to how demonic the appellant’s conduct was while he was juvenile, and his mindset can also be gathered from the fact that he has also absconded from the observation home, and presently is at large, probably lurking in some dark corner of the street, for yet another prey, and there is nobody to stop him.”
Advocate Mitesh Patidar appeared for the appellant, while GA Mridula Sen represented the respondent.
The prosecution alleged that the mother of a minor filed an FIR alleging that she found her daughter (victim) lying unconscious on the bed while the appellant, who was her landlord’s son, was standing beside her. When the mother asked him as to what he had done, he ran away from the spot.
The trial Court convicted the appellant and held that he should be sent to prison after attaining the age of 21 years.
The High Court noted that the prosecution had submitted that the age of the victim was around 4 years at the time of the incident, although no document was filed in support of the same.
“This Court has no reason to question the opinion of the doctor that the victim was 4 years old only as, admittedly, she was almost like a toddler, and cannot be argued that the prosecution has not been able to prove her age to be less than 18 years,” the Court observed.
The Bench noted the medical evidence which described the injuries suffered by the victim and stated that “there is no denying the fact that the victim was brutally raped.”
Therefore, the Court held that “this Court is of the considered opinion that in such facts and circumstances of the case, there was no reason for the mother of the victim, who herself had reached on the spot soon after the incident where she found the appellant standing beside her daughter, who was already bleeding, to lodge a false case against the appellant and to save the real culprit.The appellant has been rightly convicted.”
Consequently, the Court upheld the decision of the trial court and issued warrants against the appellant as he was not traceable.
Accordingly, the High Court dismissed the appeal.
Cause Title: Rishabh Atle Minor Through Next Friend (Father) Jaikishan Atle v. The State Of Madhya Pradesh (Neutral Citation: 2024:MPHC-IND:26500)