{"id":148340,"date":"2021-11-23T20:51:49","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T15:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=148340"},"modified":"2021-11-24T15:58:03","modified_gmt":"2021-11-24T10:28:03","slug":"the-significance-of-supreme-courts-recent-pocso-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-significance-of-supreme-courts-recent-pocso-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"The significance of Supreme Court\u2019s recent POCSO decision"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News<\/strong>: In the Attorney General of India v. Satish case<\/strong>, the Supreme Court has set aside the controversial judgment of the Bombay HC which held that \u2018skin-to-skin\u2019 contact is necessary for an act to be classified as sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act.<\/p>\n

About the Bombay HC judgment<\/h5>\n

Two judgments of the Bombay High Court provide an interpretation of \u201csexual assault\u201d under Section 7 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Note<\/strong>: Section 7 of POCSO Act mandates that \u201cwhoever with sexual intent touches the vagina, penis, anus or breast of the child or makes the child touch the vagina, penis, anus or breast of such person or any other person, or does any other act with sexual intent which involves physical contact without penetration is said to commit sexual assault\u201d.<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Satish v State of Maharashtra case<\/strong>: The Bombay HC cited \u00a0\u201cno direct physical contact, i.e. skin-to-skin contact, with sexual intent without penetration.\u201d\u00a0 Thus Satish was acquitted for sexual assault and convicted instead for outraging a woman\u2019s modesty and wrongful confinement.<\/p>\n

State of Maharashtra v. Libnus case<\/strong>: The accused was acquitted for aggravated penetrative sexual assault, and instead convicted for the lesser offences of sexual harassment under both the POCSO Act and the IPC.<\/p>\n

Read here<\/strong>:\u00a0Sexual intent, not skin-to-skin contact, key: SC<\/a><\/p>\n

About the POCSO Act<\/h5>\n

The Act provides a mandatory minimum punishment<\/strong> of three years.<\/p>\n

-For an act with sexual intent which involves physical contact without penetration, the punishment may extend to five years, and a fine.<\/p>\n

-For Aggravated penetrative sexual assault, the minimum punishment is five years imprisonment, which may extend to seven years, and a fine.<\/p>\n

Read here<\/strong>:\u00a0The POCSO Act and associated issues<\/a><\/p>\n

Why the Bombay High Court verdict is controversial?<\/h5>\n

Read here<\/strong>: Error corrected: Regarding POCSO Act<\/a><\/p>\n

-The emphasis of Section 7 is to outlaw behaviour driven by sexual intent. So, the HC judgment legitimises “an entire range of unacceptable behaviour which undermines a child\u2019s dignity and autonomy, through unwanted intrusions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why SC ruling is essential and how to move ahead?<\/h5>\n

Much needed interpretation of Section 7<\/strong>:\u00a0 Research studies based on judgments of special courts have revealed similar interpretations of Bombay High Court is prevalent in courts. For instance, taking children by force and tearing their clothes have been considered as falling outside the ambit of \u201cphysical contact\u201d under Section 7.<\/p>\n

So, the SC interpretation will serve as a precedent for the scores of cases before special courts involving physical contact with sexual intent.<\/p>\n

Research on high minimum mandatory sentences<\/strong>: Both SC and HC noticed high minimum mandatory sentences under POCSO Act. There is a need for research on the impact of high minimum mandatory sentences on judicial appreciation of evidence and outcomes, as well as the participation of victims and their families during the trial.<\/p>\n

Source<\/strong>: This post is based on the article \u201cThe significance of Supreme Court\u2019s recent POCSO decision<\/strong>\u201d published in\u00a0Indian Express <\/b>on\u00a023rd November 2021<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News: In the Attorney General of India v. Satish case, the Supreme Court has set aside the controversial judgment of the Bombay HC which held that \u2018skin-to-skin\u2019 contact is necessary for an act to be classified as sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act. About the Bombay HC judgment Two judgments… Continue reading The significance of Supreme Court\u2019s recent POCSO decision<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212],"class_list":["post-148340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}