IMPORTANT POINT
Cross-cases arising from similar incidents should be tried simultaneously to prevent conflicting judgments, and the POCSO Court can adjudicate related offences under different statutes.

ORDER :

(Bechu Kurian Thomas, J.)

Petitioner seeks joint trial of three cases in these two petitions filed under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short 'Cr.P.C'). Though the prayer is only for joint trial, a question arises whether the trial of offences under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 can be directed to be conducted before the Special Court constituted under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. Since one of the three cases claimed to be tried jointly is common to both these petitions, they are disposed of by this common order.

2. Crl.M.C No.4528 of 2024 seeks joint trial of S.C. No.1732/2023 pending before the Special Court for Trial of Offences under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Nedumangad (hereafter referred to as ‘SC/ST case’), and S.C. No.1435/2023 before the Fast Track Special Court, Kattakada, Thiruvananthapuram, (hereafter referred to as ‘POCSO case’). Crl.M.C No.4535 of 2024 seeks a joint trial of the case pending as C.P. No.56/2023 before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Kattakada, Thiruvananthapuram (hereafter referred to as ‘IPC Case’) along with POCSO case. Petitioner contends that the aforesaid three cases fall within the category of cross-cases and are hence required to be jointly tried or at least consecutively tried by the same court.

3. Petitioner is the defacto complainant in Crime No.32/2023 of Neyyardam Police Station - the IPC case, which is now pending, awaiting committal to the Sessions Court. Prosecution alleges that in the said crime on 15.01.2023, at around 9.30 pm, the accused had, due to a property dispute, formed themselves into an unlawful assembly and assaulted the defacto complainant with an iron hammer, causing a fracture of his left eye, thereby committing the offences under Sections 143 147, 148, 294(b), 341, 323, 324, 326 and 307 r/w Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The said case is now under further investigation.

4. Petitioner is the accused in the SC/ST case, which arises out of Crime No.34/2023 of Neyyardam Police Station. The said crime is initiated pursuant to a complaint filed by the wife of the first accused in the IPC case. The crime was registered on 18.01.2023 alleging that petitioner, as accused, had, on 15-01-2023 at 10 PM, trespassed into the defacto complainant’s house and after assaulting her on the head, caught hold of her hair and breast and even tore her night dress and thereby committed the offences under Sections 294(b), 451, 506, 323, 354B and 354 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short ‘IPC’), apart from sections 3(1)(s) & (r) and 3(V)(a), of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, (for short ‘the SC/ST Act’).

5. Petitioner is also the accused in the POCSO case. The said crime is initiated at the behest of the wife of the fifth accused in the IPC case alleging that the accused had on 15.01.2023 at 10.30 PM, trespassed into the house of the defacto complainant, and knowing that she is a Scheduled Caste, called her by the caste name and thereafter wore his mundu in a manner revealing his undergarments, and also caught hold of the defacto complainant’s daughter aged 12 years on her hands, and thereby outraged her modesty and sexually assaulted the minor, thus committing the offences under Sections 451, 354, 509 and 294(b) of IPC apart from Section 7 r/w Section 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (for short 'POCSO Act'), apart from sections 3(1)(s), 3(1)(w)(i and section 3(1)(w)(ii) of the SC/ST Act.

6. Petitioner, who is the defacto complainant in the IPC case and the accused in the SC/ST and POCSO cases allege that the cases registered against him are all false and are only counterblast to the IPC case, registered on his behalf. According to the petitioner, since the cases have all allegedly occurred within half an hour, in order to properly appreciate the defences raised in