New Delhi: Activists and child rights bodies have slammed the recent judgement of the Bombay High Court. It had said that there is no sexual assault if there is no ‘skin-to-skin’ contact. The activists have termed the Bombay High Court verdict ‘absolutely unacceptable, outrageous and obnoxious’. They have said they will challenge the verdict.
In a judgement passed January 19, the Bombay High Court said groping a minor’s breast without ‘skin-to-skin contact’ cannot be termed sexual assault as defined under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Justice Pushpa Ganediwala of the Nagpur bench held that there must be ‘skin to skin contact with sexual intent’ for an act to be considered sexual assault. It has drawn the ire of child rights bodies and activists.
Dhananjay Tingal, executive director of child rights NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, said their legal team was looking into the matter. All the data related to this is being collected, Tingal informed. “We shall be appealing the Supreme court on the basis of their inputs,” Tingal informed.
The apex child rights body National Commission for Protection of Child Rights asked Monday the Maharashtra government to file an urgent appeal against the recent judgement.
Activist Kavita Krishnan, secretary of All India Progressive Women’s Association, called it an ‘outrageous judgement’ which goes against the letter of the law.
“The POCSO law defines sexual assault very clearly. It has a provision for sexual touch. This notion that you will circumvent the law by saying touch with or without clothes makes no sense at all,” Krishnan said. “That is absolute rubbish and it fails the test of common sense also. For me, it’s a larger question of who qualifies to be a judge in cases related to gender,” she added.
Yogita Bhayana is an activist who heads the People Against Rape in India (PARI). She said it was disappointing to hear from a judge and such statements ‘motivate the criminals’. “I really think it’s very regressive of her (judge) to say this,” Bhayana said.
After the Nirbhaya case, Bhayana said they were trying to push that even verbal gestures are included as assault. She added that they wanted to be more progressive and move to issues of cyber bullying.
Prabhat Kumar, deputy director of ‘Save the Children’, said nowhere in the POCSO Act itself there is talk about skin-to-skin contact.
“The act talks about physical (abuse), which is largely the use of force to sexually assault. So we feel that this interpretation is not right,” Kumar informed. “If there are inconsistencies in interpretation of this law, then we must choose the law with the stricter punishment for the person accused of the offence. So even that has not been complied with,” he added.
Women’s rights activist Shamina Shafiq called it very unfortunate that a lady judge had come out with this judgement. “As a woman, you must understand that groping while you are wearing clothes is very usual and unfortunately normal in this country and this is something that keeps on happening to women and girls. And to say such a thing will give ideas to men also and it will not act as a deterrent,” Shafiq said.
“It’s shocking and the judge is a woman. I absolutely fail to understand how a woman judge can pass this kind of judgement,” social activist Shabnam Hashmi said.