Rights: The Bombay High Court has ruled that holding a minor’s hands and unzipping one’s pants in front of a minor will not fall under the definition of sexual assault under the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
The judgement was passed by Justice Pushpa Ganediwala in a case against a 50-year-old man who was charged with molesting a five-year-old girl. The child’s mother had complained that she saw the accused with his pants unzipped and holding her daughter’s hands. According to reports, the mother also said the child informed her that the man removed his penis from his pants and asked her to come to bed to sleep.
This is the second controversial judgement passed by the judge this month. In the earlier case which involved a In the earlier case which involved a 39-year-old man groping a 12-year-old girl in December 2016, Justice Ganediwala has acquitted the accused. Legal experts have said that both judgements also set a bad precedent as the interpretation of ‘physical contact’ can ultimately be used to dilute the provisions in other similarly placed statutes.