The Apex Court converted a writ petition filed under Article 32 into a Special Leave Petition filed under Article 136 on December 2 to consider the legality of a High Court order that quashed a case against a school teacher for allegedly molesting his student based on a "compromise" with family members. A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi was hearing a writ petition filed by a third party highlighting that the High Court had allowed the criminal case against the government school teacher to be quashed based on compromise.

While issuing notice, the Supreme Court noted that the Public Prosecutor had opposed the High Court's order, but the High Court relied on the Supreme Court's decision in Gian Singh vs State of Punjab. In an earlier order issued on September 30, the Court stated that the petitioner's locus must also be considered. The bench issued notice in the matter on October 30th and, given the importance of the issues involved, appointed Senior Advocate R. Basant as Amicus Curiae, who is assisted by Advocate On Record Aviral Saxena. The bench has scheduled a hearing for the 20th of January 2023.

The father of the victim girl filed an FIR against the teacher under various sections of the POCSO Act and the Indian Penal Code. The police failed to arrest the accused for an extended period of time, prompting the complainant to reach an agreement with the accused, in which the complainant stated that he does not want any action taken against the accused. The complainant went on to say that the complaint was filed because of a misunderstanding caused by villagers' confusion. The accused teacher petitioned the Rajasthan High Court for a quashing of the FIR under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The High Court granted the accused's petition and, based on the compromise, quashed the proceedings against the accused.

The petitioner stated in his petition, "The petitioners think this also that if accused government teacher who had defamed the pious relation of teacher and student by way of committing offence of touching the breast of his own minor girl student in government school premises would go unpunished today then he may commit the same offence with other girl students in future also. Not only this but other teachers will also think like this that there happens nothing to offenders in society and they should not hesitate in committing offences with girl in schools."

Case Title: Ramji Lal Birwa and Anr. vs The State of Rajasthan and Anr
Citation: Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 253/2022
Link: https://main.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2022/17351/17351_2022_6_46_40236_Order_02-Dec-2022.pdf