Overview

• Justices Urmila Joshi-Phalke and Nandesh Deshpande delivered the order on September 26, rejecting the plea to terminate proceedings.
• The case concerns a 29-year-old who married a 17-year-old on June 2, 2024, as per Muslim rites; she gave birth on May 10, 2025, and an FIR was filed on July 1, 2025, at Telhara Police Station in Akola under POCSO, the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act and relevant BNS provisions.
• The court said the accused committed an offence once he removed the minor from her parents’ lawful custody and noted he ought to have waited until she turned 18.
• Defense counsel and the now-adult survivor urged quashing by calling the relationship consensual and approved by both families, but prosecutors argued consent is irrelevant under the statute and the bench found no exceptional grounds to interfere.
• The judges cited the Supreme Court’s ongoing ‘Right to Privacy of Adolescents’ proceedings and the Union government’s opposition to lowering the age of consent, emphasizing that courts must apply the law as it stands.