The Madras High Court has reiterated that once the victim crosses 18 years of age, the rigor of Section 33 (5) of the POCSO Act get diluted and in order to give a fair chance to the petitioner/accused, the victim may be recalled.
The single-judge bench of Justice V.Sivagnanam in this view allowed a petition to recall the victim filed by an accused charged under Sections 366(A) I.P.C, and Section 5(1) r/w 6 of POCSO Act.
At the time of occurrence of the incident in the year 2018, the victim girl was aged about 17 years. The Trial Judge, in view of the Section 33 (5) of POCSO Act, to avoid repeatedly harassing the victim, the trial Court dismissed the petition.
The Court noted that the victim has now become a major and also this incident happened due to the love affair between the petitioner/ accused and the victim girl and the accused was arrested on her father's complaint. It was of the view that the accused wants to expose the contradictions in the statement of the victim before the trial Court and an opportunity must be given to an accused to place his defence.
"Further illustration Section 33 (5) of the POCSO Act is only to ensure that the child should not be repeatedly called for the Court for examining as it would affect the mind of the child. Now, the victim is not a child, and becomes major. Therefore, by invoking Section 33 (5) of POCSO Act, to recall a victim for the purpose of cross examination by the accused and in order to give a last chance to the accused to place his defence to make prosecution of criminal proceedings against him, P.W.2 may be recalled and the petitioner may be permitted to cross-examine."
The Court accrodingly set aside the impugned order.
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(With input from news agency language)
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