Nithyakalyani Narayanan V
The Uttarakhand High Court ordered the accused of sexually harassing a woman over Facebook to plant 50 trees as a condition to quash the case against him. The accused was alleged to have misused a friend request on Facebook to send objectionable photographs and videos to the woman.
The case involved offences under Sections 354A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 67(a) and 67 of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008. Adv. Dharmendra Barthwal appeared for the accused and Adv. Mamta Joshi appeared for the lady complainant.
The chargesheet filed by the Investigating Officer denoted that the claims against the accused were prima facie true. Therefore, the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Nainital summoned the accused for trial. The complainant expressed her intention to settle the matter out of court. She informed the Court that she had accepted the accused’s apology and did not wish to pursue the case any further. However, the learned Government Advocate opposed the Compounding Application, stating that the offence under Section 354A of IPC was not compoundable under Section 320 of the CrPC.
The single-judge Bench exercised the powers of the court granted under Section 482 of CrPC and proceeded to quash the ongoing criminal proceedings – “Owing to the aforesaid statement made by the complainant respondent No. 2, this Court is of the view that looking to the nature and gravity of offenses and also coupled with the fact that the parties have close affinity with one another, owing to their relationship which they have developed on Facebook, coupled with the fact that the applicant was known to the family members of the complainant, in order to maintain peace and harmony amongst themselves, the Compounding Application is required to be considered by this Court in the exercise of its powers under Section 482 of CrPC.”
Along with quashing the criminal proceedings, Justice Sharad Kumar Sharma imposed certain conditions for the accused to abide by. The accused is required to plant 50 trees in an area designated by the Horticulture Department in his district or taluka at his own cost. This plantation will be supervised by the Horticulture Department, and the accused must submit a certificate of compliance from the competent authority of the department.
Justice Sharma highlighted that if the accused does not comply with the conditions within one month from the date of the hearing, it will result in the revival of the criminal proceedings by default.
Bench: Justice Sharad Kumar Sharma
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