BEER PAL Vs. STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Pitted against a coercive order passed against him by the learned trial Court under Section 82 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short 'Cr.P.C.') declaring him a proclaimed offender, the petitioner herein, who is one of the two accused in FIR No. 4 of 2010 under Sections 363, 366A and 120B of the Indian Penal Code (for short 'IPC'), has filed the present petition under Section 482 Cr.P.C., with a prayer to quash the FIR, as also the order declaring him as a proclaimed offender. The offence relates to 10.1.2010 when the prosecutrix, whose date of birth is stated to be 3.2.1995, was admittedly a minor below the age of 16 years. It is represented on behalf of the petitioner that the prosecutrix attained the age of majority on 2.2.1995 and thereafter he has married her on 12.2.2013.

(2.) Against the foregoing background, the relevant date vis-a-vis the commission of the alleged offences against the petitioner is 10.1.2010. At that time as per records, the prosecutrix was well below the age of 16 years. In support of his prayer for quashing, the learned Counsel for the petitioner has placed reliance upon Sk. Belal alias Sk. Raja and others v. State of Orissa, 1994 CrLJ 467. However, the case relied upon by the learned Counsel for the petitioner has no application to the facts of the present case, as whereas the prosecutrix in the case in hand, was admittedly below the age of 16 years at the time of the alleged offences, in the case before the Hon'ble Orissa High Court, the prosecutrix was major and had joined the company of the accused out of her free and independent volition. The learned Counsel for the petitioner has also referred to Section 92 of the Indian Penal Code. In this regard, suffice it to say that the said Section has no application, whatsoever, to the facts of the present case. In the facts and circumstances of the case including the nature of the offences alleged against the petitioner and the fact that he has been fleeing from justice for the last more than three years, I do not see any merit in the present petition and the same is accordingly dismissed.