The validity of consent in cases involving minors and the admissibility of official records as evidence.

JUDGMENT :

SANJAY S. AGRAWAL, J.

1. This appeal has been preferred by the accused under Section 374 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973(for short ‘the Cr.P.C.’) against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 31.01.2020, passed by the Special Judge [constituted under Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities)] Act, 1989 (herein after referred to as ‘the Atrocities Act’) in Special Criminal Case No. 19/2019, whereby, the appellant has been convicted and sentenced as under:

In default of payment of fine R.I. for 1-1 year, in each offence. The sentences were directed to run concurrently.

2. Briefly stated the facts of the case are that on 10.03.2018, a written report was lodged by the prosecutrix’s father before the Police Station, Antagrh, alleging inter-alia, that his minor daughter is missing from the house since 03.02.2018 and raised a doubt that someone else has abducted her. Based upon the said information, an offence punishable under Section 363 of IPC has been registered against an unknown person in connection with Crime No. 22/2018 and when the matter was being investigated, the prosecutrix returned home on 08.10.2018 and her statement was accordingly recorded, in which, it was stated that she came in contact with the appellant in the month of January 2018 and since then they used to talk with each other through mobile phones and on the fateful day, the appellant called her at Dallirajhara and she went there and thereafter, both went to Durg and later on, to Mumbai by Train and stayed in the Lodge for 7 months, and during this period, the appellant has committed sexual intercourse with her on several occasions. She states further that after 7 months, at her request, the appellant dropped her at Durg Station, from where she returned home by Bus. After recording her statement, an offence punishable under Sections 363, 366 and 376 of IPC and also under Sections 4 and 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012(for short the ‘POCSO Act’) read with Sections 3(1)(b) and 3(2)(v) of the Atrocities Act has been registered against the appellant, who was then arrested on 08.03.2019. The statement of the prosecutrix was recorded under Section 164 of Cr.P.C vide Ex.P-7 and was sent for her medical examination and Dr. Preeti Singh(PW-7), who examined her, recommended for obtaining the report from the Radiologist in order to ascertain her age. For collecting the information pertaining to her age, “Dakhil Kharij Register” was recovered from the Head Mistress of the concerned school and the birth Certificate was recovered from the prosecutrix’s parents. After collecting her vaginal slide and the semen of the appellant, it was sent for chemical examination and that by conducting the thorough investigation, a final report has been filed for the offence mentioned herein above and, after considering the same, the trial Court has framed the charges under Sections 363, 366, 376(2)(n) and 376(3) of IPC, under Section 6 of the POCSO Act read with Section 3(2)(v) of the Atrocities Act against the appellant, who denied the charges so framed and claimed to be tried.

3. In order to bring home the guilt of the accused/appellant, the prosecution has examined as many as 17 witnesses and exhibited 42 documents, while none was examined by the appellant in rebuttal.

4. After considering the evidence led by the prosecution, the appellant has been found to be guilty of the alleged offence and accordingly, he has been convicted and sentenced by the learned trial Court for the offence punishable under Sections 363, 3