MUMBAI: The Supreme Court has quashed a POCSO case against a woman, holding that there was “absolutely no reason” to subject her to a criminal trial when the evidence did not support the allegations. A bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K. Vinod Chandran allowed the woman’s appeal and set aside the FIR registered at Khadki Police Station, Pune, under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.The case stemmed from a custody dispute between a divorced couple over their twin children. The children’s mother alleged that her son had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by his paternal aunt and claimed she had witnessed one such incident while they were living together. The couple had obtained a mutual consent divorce on Sept. 5, 2023, with custody of the children remaining with the father and visitation rights granted to the mother.The apex court noted that no such allegations were made during the marriage, at the time of the divorce or immediately thereafter. Instead, the FIR was lodged on March 17, 2024, only hours after the children’s father filed a separate FIR alleging sexual abuse by the maternal uncle.“The FIR, on a plain reading, does not inspire confidence,” the bench observed, adding that marital disputes often result in in-laws being implicated to settle personal scores. Advocate Sana Raees Khan, appearing for the appellant, argued that the prosecution was a classic abuse of the criminal justice process arising from a bitter custody battle. The court also relied on the minor boy’s statement recorded before a Judicial Magistrate under Section 164 CrPC, in which he did not support his mother’s allegations. It noted that an earlier Bombay High Court bench had found the complaint prima facie unsupported, but a later bench declined to quash the FIR solely because cross-complaints had been filed.
