The Madhya Pradesh High Court, while setting aside a man’s conviction under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, has observed that trial courts were “consistently failing to perform their duties”.

A bench of Justices Vivek Agarwal and Avanindra Kumar Singh was hearing an appeal by a man sentenced to 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment by a trial court for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor.

The accused man claimed that he was in a consensual physical relationship with the girl and that she was not a minor. The man also said that the prosecution had not placed before the court an X-ray report indicating that the age of the girl was likely to have been between 17 and 19 years.

He argued that the prosecution displayed “intellectual dishonesty” by not placing before the court a document that appeared to go against it.

The High Court said in its judgement on August 14 that the trial court had committed “several irregularities”. It said that the trial court had not taken cognisance of an ossification test report available on record and had not asked questions to the accused man on the basis of a DNA test report.

The High Court took note of a Supreme Court judgement saying that ossification tests only give a broad assessment of age and that there can be a margin of error of one or two years on either side. The bench said that, keeping in mind the margin of error, the girl would have to be deemed to be an adult, and the accused man would have to be given the resultant benefit.

The High Court took note of the girl’s X-ray report as she did not have a birth certificate and her parents had not given any document showing her date of birth while admitting her to school.

The bench acquitted the man of all charges.

The girl, in a statement recorded before a magistrate, said that she had known the man for a year and that they had been talking on the phone. She said that about ten days before the alleged offence, the man proposed marriage to her, to which she agreed.

They went to Hyderabad and got married at a temple.

The High Court noted that the girl said she had left home without informing her parents and had later mentioned the name of the accused man “out of fear of her parents”.

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