Groping a Child Without 'Skin-to-skin' Contact Does Not Amount to Sexual Assault under POCSO: Bombay HC

Groping a Child Without 'Skin-to-skin' Contact Does Not Amount to Sexual Assault under POCSO: Bombay HC The Bombay High ...

Groping a Child Without 'Skin-to-skin' Contact Does Not Amount to Sexual Assault under POCSO: Bombay HC

The Bombay High Court, modifying a sessions court order that held a man guilty of a minor's sexual assault, ruled that groping a child without "skin-to-skin contact with sexual intent" does not amount to the offence under the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The judgement was passed on January 19, the detailed copy of which was made available now.

Justice Pushpa Ganediwala, hearing the case for the Nagpur Bench of the court, held that act of groping the 12-year-old girl's chest and removing her salwar would amount to molestation under Section 354 of the IPC (outraging a woman's modesty), Live Law reported. The revised sentence punished the accused with one year's imprisonment for the less graver offence.

The sessions court had sentenced him to three years of imprisonment for the offences under the POCSO Act and under IPC section 354. The sentences were to run concurrently.

"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 the top and pressed her breast, would not fall in the definition of sexual assault," it said