The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to quash a case against a former judicial officer who is accused of sexual abuse by his daughter.
A Bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Manmohan called the case serious, noting that it involved serious allegations of incest against him.
"The daughter is making an allegation…It’s a shocking case. He is a judicial officer and these are serious allegations of incest! This is shocking. And the daughter has made the allegations. She must have been scarred for life. How can this be a case for quashing?," the Court remarked.
The former judge has been booked under Sections 354 (assault or use of criminal force against a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 7 (sexual assault), 8 (punishment for sexual assault), 9(l) (sexual assault on the child more than once or repeatedly), 9(n) (sexual assault of child by relative), and 10 (aggravated sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
He had filed a special leave petition before the top court to challenge a Bombay High Court order refusing to quash the charges against him.
His counsel told the Court that the allegations had ruined his life and career, and stemmed from a prolonged matrimonial dispute with his wife.
“This man’s entire life has been ruined starting with his matrimonial problems. This is clearly a counterblast. His father committed suicide,” the counsel said.
The Court, however, said that it was not inclined to examine the alleged background of the case and pointed to the seriousness of the accusations.
“We don’t want to get into all this. Suicide may be because of the son’s actions," it added
The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the allegations had surfaced years after the alleged incidents. It was also argued that the allegations were absent from the divorce and domestic violence proceedings.
The Court, however, remained unconvinced and declined to interfere with the High Court's order. It dismissed the petition with a direction for expediting the trial.
According to the plea, the first information report (FIR) against the petitioner was registered on January 21, 2019 in Bhandara, Maharashtra.
The allegations, however, pertain to incidents alleged to have occurred between May 2014 and 2018. A chargesheet has been filed by the police but the charges are yet to be framed by the Special POCSO Court.
The petitioner argued that the complaint was motivated by malice and was filed four years after the alleged offences, coinciding with ongoing matrimonial litigation and a custody battle.
His plea also alleged that the daughter’s statement was manipulated and recorded only after the petitioner’s father committed suicide in December 2018. The suicide note reportedly blamed the complainant and her family.
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