Stigma for rape has to be on accused, change in societal mindset needed: Delhi High Court

The FIR was lodged in 2024 under BNS sections of kidnapping, rape of a minor, and criminal intimidation, as well as offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

According to the FIR, the survivor was allegedly blackmailed into a physical relationship by the accused, who made a video of her.

The accused was seeking quashing of the case, primarily on the ground that he had settled with the survivor’s parents.

Justice Girish Kathpalia, however, refused to quash the case and further imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 to be deposited by the accused to the Delhi High Court Legal Services Committee.

Taking note that the survivor is a minor girl and that the accused is absconding and is a proclaimed offender, the court refused to accept the accused’s arguments to quash the case against him.

“… counsel for petitioner (accused) contends that quashing the present proceedings would be in the interest of the prosecutrix, otherwise, she would have to face stigma. I find this argument obnoxious, to say the least. The stigma has to be, not on the victim of the wrong, but on the perpetrator of the wrong. There has to be a paradigm shift in societal mindset by attaching stigma to the accused and not to the girl who underwent the horrid suffering by way of rape,” Justice Kathpalia held in an order dated August 29.

Refusing to take into consideration the settlement between the survivor’s parents and the accused, the court reasoned, “This argument also is completely devoid of merit. For it is the minor girl, and not her parents, who was wronged and suffered because of the alleged act on the part of the petitioner. It is only the prosecutrix who could have pardoned the wrongdoer, that too in certain specific conditions.”