Overview

• A bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam A Ankhad issued the direction during a hearing on the girl's plea to quash the FIR.
• The judges questioned the police decision to invoke the child-sexual-offence law given both the complainant and the accused are 15-year-old classmates.
• Kandivali police registered the case on July 10 after obscene messages from an unknown number reached the student and later her mother and friends via a WhatsApp group.
• Investigators later identified the sender as the classmate, whom police say described the conduct as a prank without understanding the legal consequences.
• Additional Public Prosecutor S.C. Gavand said the POCSO entry was based on the initial complaint before the sender’s identity was known, and the matter is listed for further hearing next week.