The Allahabad High Court in the case of Om Prakash v State observed that cases involving heinous offences such as rape and molestation of minors under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, cannot be quashed merely because the accused and complainant have entered into a compromise.

The present case revolves around the FIR filed by a widow alleging that she became friends with the applicant-accused in the year 2020, who held a false promise to marry her and on the basis of this promise, he had carnal intercourse with her and also molested her minor daughter with questionable intentions. The accused was thus booked for rape and molestation and other offences under the Indian Penal Code and also for offences under the POCSO Act for offences against the complainant’s daughter.

Subsequently in the year 2021, the complainant and the accused got married according to Hindu rites and therefore, she moved an application before the special judge stating that she does not want to pursue the prosecution and that the case should be disposed of on the basis of the compromise.

The Court observed that the State is the forerunner of the prosecution and it is the State which has to pursue the prosecution and take it to its logical conclusion and ruled that “In any eventuality, in a matter like the present one, this Court cannot interdict the prosecution and quash proceedings for the saying of the complainant, based on a compromise between parties. As the result, this application fails and stands rejected.”