"Love Affair" No Ground For Bail When Minor Involved, Says Supreme Court

Supreme Court set aside the order of a single judge of Jharkhand High Court granting bail to an accused in a case registered under POSCO.

The Supreme Court has said that grounds like "there was a love affair" between the girl and the accused and there was alleged "refusal to marry" will have no bearing on the grant of bail in the POCSO case.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant set aside the order of a single judge of Jharkhand High Court granting bail to an accused in a case registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012 and IPC.

It said, "The High Court was manifestly in error in allowing the application for bail. The reason that from the statement under Section 164 and the averments in the FIR, it appears that 'there was a love affair' between the appellant and the second respondent and that the case was instituted on the refusal of the second respondent to marry the appellant, is specious".

The bench said, "Once, prima facie, it appears from the material before the Court that the appellant was barely thirteen years of age on the date when the alleged offence took place, both the grounds, namely that 'there was a love affair' between the appellant (girl) and the second respondent (accused) as well as the alleged refusal to marry, are circumstances which will have no bearing on the grant of bail".