The Supreme Court has set aside a Rajasthan High Court judgment that had upheld the compromise reached between a schoolteacher accused of sexually assaulting a minor Dalit girl on the campus and the father of the victim, as the top court said no such agreement is valid for heinous offences which have a serious impact on society.

The apex court also lamented that the Rajasthan government chose not to challenge the high court judgment, which had quashed the FIR against the accused for offences relating to sexual harassment and cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The girl’s father opposed the appeal filed in the apex court against the high court judgment by some local villagers on the ground that they had no locus standi as they were not the aggrieved party.

Justice C.T. Ravi Kumar said: “This court held that such offences are not private in nature and have a serious impact on society…. It is the bounden duty of the court concerned to consider whether the compromise is just and fair, besides being free from undue pressure. We will proceed to consider the matter further. The impugned order would reveal that the allegations contained in the subject FIR were not at all even
adverted to, before quashing the same.”