Under the Act, "knowledge" of a sexual offence against a minor includes awareness based on credible information received from the victim. Institutional authorities are legally mandated to report such information immediately; conducting internal verification before reporting is prohibited as it undermines the protective purpose of the legislation.

JUDGMENT :

MANOJ MISRA, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. This appeal is by a minor victim’s mother impugning an order of the High Court¹[Gauhati High Court, Itanagar Bench] dated 08.03.2022 in Criminal Revision Petition No.6 of 2021, whereby the discharge order passed by the Trial Court²[Court of Session Bomdila, West Kameng District, State of Arunachal Pradesh] dated 19.02.2021 has been affirmed.

Background Facts

3. A first information report³[FIR No.01 of 2020 at Women Police Station, Seppa, East Kameng District, State of Arunachal Pradesh] was lodged by the appellant on 17.04.2020, inter alia, alleging that on 07.04.2020, her daughter⁴[Hereinafter referred to as Ms. XXX or the victim], aged 8 years, complained of pain in her private part. Upon enquiry, the victim told the appellant that in the month of November 2019, while the victim was in SRS school (a pseudonym), her senior, a Juvenile boy, had sexually assaulted her in the classroom; the incident was reported by her to her elder sister, a student of the same school, who, in turn, informed the Head Girl; thereafter, the Head Girl scolded the boy and reported the matter to the school authority. It was alleged that the school authority did not take action and did not even inform the informant, rather the boarders of that school were told not to disclose about the incident to anyone. It was also alleged that when the informant came to know about the incident, to ascertain the truth, she took the victim to the District Hospital where the Doctor, after check-up, confirmed that informant’s daughter is a victim of rape. On the aforesaid allegations, the informant (i.e., the appellant herein) prayed for action against the offender(s) including the school authorities/ staff.

4. The matter was investigated. During investigation, statements of the victim; her sister; the Head Girl of the School; and few witnesses were recorded. Thereafter, the police report, dated 29.05.2020, was submitted under Section 173(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973⁵[CrPC] enlisting eight witnesses, namely, (i) the informant; (ii) the victim; (iii) (iii) Elder sister of the victim⁶[Referred to as Ms. BBB]; (iv) Y S, the Head Girl of the School⁷[Hereinafter referred to as HG]; (v) RT, Chairperson of the management of the School; (vi) Medical Officer; (vii) another Medical Officer; and (viii) Smt. S. Nabam, the Investigating Officer. Relevant portion of the police report, containing the narration of the facts and the nature of evidence collected during investigation is extracted below⁸[Pseudonyms of the School, Victim etc., as far as possible is being used.]:

“16. Brief facts of the case:

The bfrief fact of the case is that a written FIR was received on 17/04/20 at 1900 hrs from Smt. AAA (27 yrs) w/o shri. CCC of Type III police colony, Seppa to the effect that her daughter Ms. XXX (8 yrs) studying in class I at SRS School was allegedly raped by one KB, a student of Class VIII of SRS School, in their classroom in the month of November 2019. The said incident was narrated to t