ILNS: An FIR in a rape case has been quashed by the Supreme Court, after the request of both the accused and the complainant, who claimed that it was lodged due to some ‘misunderstanding’ between them and that they were now happily married.
A Division Bench of Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari on Wednesday passed this order while setting aside the orders passed by the Delhi High Court on November 14, 2019, and January 30, 2020, rejecting the criminal writ petitions filed for quashing of the FIR.
The Delhi High Court, while rejecting the petition of the accused, had observed, “Rape not only causes serious injury to a woman’s body, her honour and dignity and even if such an offence is settled by the offender and victim, this offence being not private in nature but has serious impact on the society and, therefore, cannot be quashed.”
The FIR was lodged by the complainant on September 17, 2013, at the Safdarjung Enclave Police Station in the capital, alleging that the accused had promised to marry her, but he did not keep his promise.
However later, the couple resolved their differences and eventually got married on October 11, 2014. They are now enjoying a happy married life, said Senior Counsel Meenakshi Arora, representing both the appellant, as well as the private respondent, before the apex court.
A joint request is, therefore, made on behalf of the appellant and the private respondent that the FIR be quashed as it was the outcome of some misunderstanding between the parties, the Advocate said.
“Considering the nature of allegations in the FIR and the realisation of the fact that due to miscommunication FIR came to be registered at the relevant point of time which issues/misunderstanding have now been fully resolved and the parties are happily married since October 11, 2014, the basis of FIR does not survive”, the Supreme Court said.
“The registration of an FIR is an ill-advised move on part of the private respondent, is the stand now taken before us. It is seen that the appellant and the private respondent are literate and well-informed persons and have jointly opted for quashing of the stated FIR.
“Taking overall view of the matter, therefore, in the interest of justice, we accede to the joint request of quashing of FIR in the peculiar facts of the present case”.
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“The Judgement and the order (of Delhi High Court) is set aside. Instead, the Petition filed by the appellant for quashing is allowed, as a result of which, all steps taken on the basis of FIR be treated as effaced from the record in law,” it observed.