Noting that “the crime was not of lust but love”, the Supreme Court has let off a man who was convicted under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 for raping a minor girl.

A Bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice AG Masih used its extraordinary powers under Article 142 to set aside the man’s conviction, taking note of the fact that sex was consensual; the survivor had married the accused; the couple had a child and they were living happily.

“We are conscious of the fact that a crime is not merely a wrong against an individual but against society as a whole. When an offence is committed, it wounds the collective conscience of the society and therefore the society, acting through its elected lawmakers, determines what would be the punishment for such an of

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