Keypoints:
- Recently, Bombay High Court judgment had said that an act cannot be termed as sexual assault if there is no “skin-to-skin” contact.
- The apex child rights body in the country, NCPCR, asked the Maharashtra government on Monday to file an urgent appeal against the judgement.
On Monday, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) asked the Maharashtra government to file an urgent appeal against the recent Bombay High Court (HC) judgement which stated that an act cannot be termed as sexual assault if there is no “skin-to-skin” contact.
Drafting a letter to the Maharashtra Chief Secretary, NCPCR Chairperson Priyank Kanoongo said that the words “skin-to-skin with sexual intention without penetration” in the judgment need to be reviewed. She also added that the state should take note as it seems to be derogatory to the minor victim in the case.
“Considering the seriousness of the issue, the commission being the monitoring body under section 44 of the POCSO Act , 2012 requests you to take necessary steps in the matter and file an urgent appeal against the aforesaid impugned judgment of the Hon’ble High Court,” Kanoongo said.
On January 19, Justice Pushpa Ganediwala of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay HC stated that groping a minor’s breast without “skin-to-skin contact” cannot be called as sexual assault as defined under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
“Evidently, it is not the case of the prosecution that the appellant removed her top and pressed her breast. 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,” Justice Ganediwala was quoted in the report.
