The Supreme Court has stayed a controversial Bombay High Court verdict, which cleared a man found guilty of assault under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) on the grounds that he groped his victim over her clothes and there was no ‘skin-to-skin’ contact between them. Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde on Wednesday took apprehension immediately after Attorney General K.K. Venugopal made a special mention in court, saying the High Court decision would set a “very dangerous precedent” and cripple the intention of POCSO to punish sexual offenders. The top law officer was addressing the Court in a petition filed by him against a controversial judgment passed by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court on January 19 this year which acquitted a man for groping a 12-year-old on the reasoning that there was no “skin to skin” contact.
