The Supreme Court has stayed the Bombay High Court’s Nagpur Bench order which said that a person groping a girl child’s breast without skin-to-skin contact cannot be held guilty of sexual assault under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act. The Bombay High Court’s verdict by Justice Pushpa Ganediwala has been challenged by Youth Bar Association of India.
In her order Justice Ganediwala has said, “….it is not the case of the prosecution that the appellant removed her top and pressed her breast. The punishment provided for offence of ‘sexual assault’ is imprisonment of either description for a term, which shall not be less than three years, but which may extend to five years, and shall also be liable to fine. Considering the stringent nature of punishment provided for the offence, in the opinion of this Court, stricter proof and serious allegations are required. The act of pressing of breast of the child aged 12 years, in the absence of any specific detail as to whether the top was removed or whether he inserted his hand inside top and pressed her breast, would not fall in the definition of ‘sexual assault’….”
On the basis of this, a 39-year-old man was acquitted of the charge of a sexual assault on a 12-year-old girl. However, the man was found guilty of molestation by Justice Ganediwala.
The petitioners have quoted this part of the judgement, in their special leave petition in the Supreme Court. The petitioners said that the Bombay High Court order will have wide impact on the society and the public at large and as a result of they have approached the Supreme Court for its intervention in the matter.
While staying the order of the Bombay High Court, the Supreme Court issued a notice to Maharashtra Government, giving it two weeks to reply.
Attorney General KK Venugopal told the Supreme Court, “the order is disturbing and is likely to set a dangerous precedent.”