Shillong(Meghalaya), April 18: The Meghalaya High Court quashed a POCSO case against a mason living with the teenage survivor and their two children, ruling jail would cause “greater injustice” than letting them stay as a family.
Chief Justice Revati Mohite Dere held the survivor’s consent was “genuine and informed” and noted the couple live “happily as husband and wife,” with the man covering all household and school costs. The survivor has no birth certificate, EPIC or Aadhaar, and both kids born at home lack birth certificates.
Citing Meghalaya’s matrilineal customs and “ground realities” of adolescent consensual relationships, the Court said law must be “tempered with fairness, compassion and empathy” in exceptional cases.
It ordered 15 State and Central schemes for the mother and children, directed authorities to process their IDs within eight weeks, and set June 29 for compliance. The FIR and trial before the Special Judge (POCSO), West Khasi Hills, stand quashed.
