Supreme Court overturns child sexual assault rule

Supreme Court overturns child sexual assault rule

The Protection of Children Sexual Offence Act does not require skin-to-skin contact

The Supreme Court of India has overturned a judgment by the High Court of Bombay and ruled that sexual assault under the Protection of Children Sexual Offence (POSCO) Act does not require 'skin-to-skin' contact. The court had examined two similar cases.

In the first case, the defendant had undressed a five-year-old girl and exposed himself to her before her mother caught him and intervened. In the second case, the defendant lured a 12-year old girl into his house and molested her. The apex court said, "The victim tried to shout but the accused pressed her mouth. Thereafter, he left the room and bolted the door from outside."

The High Court had ruled that the defendants were not guilty of sexual assault. Referring to these as minor offences, it convicted them on the excuse that they had not made any skin-to-skin contact with their victims.

After the ruling, the Attorney General of India K K Venugopal, the National Commission for Women (NCW) and the State of Maharashtra had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court.

Justice Uday Umesh Lalit specifically thanked Venugopal for filing the appeal and extended his gratitude for the "enormous assistance" of advocates for the accused and to the NCW.

The Supreme Court examined the statute, which prohibits touching a child's "vagina, penis, anus or breast" or making any other "physical contact" with sexual intent. The court noted that the legislature intended to broadly protect children from sexual abuse.

It ruled that interpreting the statute to require skin-to-skin contact would be "narrow and pedantic" and would "lead to an absurd interpretation of the said provision."

Under the High Court's interpretation of the POCSO Act, "touching the sexual or non-sexual parts of the body of a child with gloves, condoms, sheets or with cloth, though done with sexual intent, would not amount to an offence of sexual assault."