Courts can quash criminal proceedings for non-compoundable offences where they are of a purely personal nature without impacting public interest, as seen in adolescent relationship cases under strict laws.

O R D E R

This Criminal Original Petition has been filed to quash the proceedings in Spl.S.C.No.96 of 2025 on the file of the Sessions Judge, Magalir Neethimandram, Chennai at Allikulam for the offences under Section 87 of BNSS r/w Section 5(j)(ii)r/w 6 of Protection of Child from Sexual offences Act, 2012

2. The victim girl now aged about 18 years and at the time of occurrence, she was 17 years old. The allegation against the petitioner is that he had kidnapped the victim girl and married her and had physical relationship with her. Based on the complaint given by the defacto complainant, the present complaint has been registered and on completion of investigation, charge sheet has been filed.

3. The petitioner had stated in the affidavit that the petitioner and the victim girl got married and they are living together and they are having one male child out of their wedlock and the 2^nd respondent, who is the mother of the victim girl has also accepted them and hence, submitted that the proceedings against petitioner may be quashed.

4. Ms. S.Bharathi, Sub Inspector of Police, W10 AWPS was present before this Court and she informed this Court that the defacto complainant had approached her and informed her that since her daughter and the petitioner got married, having a child and living together happily, she do not want to proceed further with the criminal proceedings against the petitioner.

5. The petitioner and the victim girl were also present along with their child before this Court at the time of hearing. This Court examined the victim girl and she stated that there was a love affair between herself and the petitioner and that she is not willing to undergo this agony any further and wanted the criminal proceedings to be quashed.

6. The learned Government Advocate (Crl.Side) appearing on behalf of the first respondent submitted that though the parties entered into a compromise while this case is pending, this Court, taking into account the seriousness of the offence has to consider the issue as to whether an offence of this nature can be quashed on the ground of compromise between parties.

7. In this regard it is relevant to refer the judgment of the learned Single Judge of this Court, in Sabari v. Inspector of Police reported in 2019 (3) MLJ Crl 110, wherein the learned single Judge had discussed in detail about the cases in which persons of the age group of 16 to 18 years are involved in love affairs and how in some cases ultimately end up in a criminal case booked for an offence under the POSCO Act. The relevant portions of the judgment are extracted here under for proper appreciation:

“ 21.When this case was taken up for hearing, this Court became concerned about the growing incidence of offences under the POCSO Act on one side and also the Rigorous Imprisonment envisaged in the Act. Sometimes it happens that such offences are slapped against teenagers, who fall victim of the application of the POCSO Act at an young age without understanding the implication of the severity of the enactment.

26.In addition to the above, this Court is of the view that 'warning' of attraction of POCSO Act must be displayed before screening of any film, which have teenage characters suggesting relationship between boy and girl.

27.Apart from the above, this Court is of the view that as per the 3rd respondent's report, majority of cases are due to relationship between adolescent boys and girls. Though under Section 2 (d) of the Act, 'Child' is defined as a person below the age of 18 years and in case of any love affair between a girl and a boy, where the girl happened to be 16 or 17 years old, either in th