‘Control sexual urges, protect your dignity’ — Calcutta HC tells young girls while hearing POCSO case
‘Control sexual urges, protect your dignity’ — Calcutta HC tells young girls while hearing POCSO case
Print The court said that an adolescent girl has a duty to protect her own right to integrity, self-worth, and dignity. “Control sexual urge/urges as in the eyes of the society she is the loser when she gives in to enjoy the sexual pleasure of hardly two minutes,” the court observed, adding, “She must also thrive for overall development of herself, transcend gender barriers, and protect her body and privacy.” In contrast, the court said a male adolescent must respect a young woman and her dignity, privacy and autonomy. The court also placed emphasis on parents being an adolescent’s first teachers and stressed on their role in parental guidance and sex education. The bench added that young boys must be taught how to befriend women without sexual urges even if there are advances from the other side, until one is ready to maintain a family. It also emphasised the role of awareness among women and them being educated to be cognisant of good touch and bad touch, as well as bad company. “There must be emphasis on the fact that sexual relationship is not permitted at such an age,” said the court. “We do not want our adolescents to do anything that shall push them from the dark to the darker side of life.” The bench added that seeking company of the opposite sex was normal, “but it is not normal to seek sex devoid of commitment and dedication.” consensual sexual relationships between adolescents are rising since “girls are attaining puberty now-a-days in a younger age and sexuality develop in them very early maybe owing to peer pressure, influence by social media, free availability of porn materials and free mixing with friends of opposite sex in a taboo-free atmosphere (sic)”. There is “automatic criminalisation” of such incidents, which attract the rigours of the POCSO Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC), as even a consensual relationship with an underage person is a criminal offence, noted the court. The age of consent for intercourse in India is 18 and consent given by a person below the said age is not regarded as valid and intercourse with them amounts to rape.
Child pornography
- ! About 1.94 lakh complaints regarding child pornography and rape or gang rape had been registered till April 30, 2024 in National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP)
- @ the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS-112) is operational in all 36 states and union territories and had handled more than 36.29 crore calls till April 30, 2024
- $ integration of the Women's Helpline (WHL-181) with ERSS is functional in 35 states and union territories. Over 76.02 lakh women had sought helpline assistance till May 31.
- % Monitoring centres for the Vehicle Tracking Platform (VTP) have been commissioned in 11 states and union territories, enhancing the tracking and safety of public transport
- & the Integrated Emergency Response Management System (IERMS) project, CCTV systems have been installed in 489 railway stations nationwide.
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- 2,034 tabs have been procured and distributed to Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel to assist women travelling alone or those in need of help on trains
Delayed POCSO cases
In April last year, the Allahabad High Court directed the state government to frame necessary guidelines to recover compensation paid to rape victims who turn hostile.
the court said, “The victim is the person who comes before the court and during the trial, if she denies the allegation of rape and becomes hostile, there is no justification to keep the amount of compensation provided by the state government.
Child rights experts opine that victims turning hostile in POCSO cases have to be seen in the light of multi-layered contributing factors.
victims turn hostile is the lack of support during the time-consuming process of investigation and the long duration of the trial.
“Once a POCSO case is filed, the victims and their families are known to change residences. Some children even fall out of education. Nobody is looking at the multiple vulnerabilities of a child while facing the system and in her general life.”
the delay in the completion of the trial is a major contributing factor in the victim and their families withdrawing support during the course of the proceedings.
Section 28 (designation of special courts) of the POCSO ACT provides for establishing special courts to ensure a speedy trial. Under Section 35 (period of recording evidence of child and disposal of cases) of the POCSO Act, the evidence of the child should be recorded within 30 days and the trial should be completed within one year, following the special court taking cognisance of the offence. Since 2019, fast-track special courts have been established across the country to deal with cases registered under the POCSO Act. As reported in December last year, there are 351 fast-track courts and 412 POCSO courts in the country. Mangnani shared that certain POCSO cases have taken ten years to be adjudged, where for instance, a case was registered in 2013 and the accused was convicted in 2023. She also cited a recent example of a POCSO case where the court took three years to complete recording a victim’s testimony.
in December 2022 says that in Delhi, POCSO cases had been pending for more than three and a half years before being disposed of. In addition, 58 percent of all POCSO cases disposed of in 2020 had been pending for over a year. Scroll
Under Section 33(8) of the POCSO Act, the special court is empowered to direct payment of compensation to the victim for the physical or mental trauma, or immediate rehabilitation. According to Rule 9(1) of the POCSO Rules, 2020, the special court can grant interim compensation to meet the needs of the child for relief or rehabilitation after filing the FIR, which is to be adjusted against the final compensation.
Mangnani explained that interim compensation is also granted in romantic (or the so-called Romeo and Juliet) cases, where the girl has already expressed in her statement recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure that she does not wish to pursue the case. “In romantic cases, when the victim never wanted to pursue the case, the courts are still awarding them interim compensation. How does the question of victims in such cases turning hostile arise when they continue to stand by their statement of not supporting the case?” Magnani said.
How is the victim supposed to focus on her rehabilitative needs of education and medical support if she is time and again required to appear before the stakeholders?” Mangnani added
“Saying that a victim has turned hostile and therefore it is a ‘false case’ is a huge abdication on the part of the judge and system where the entire onus is put on the victim without the system taking any responsibility of the child”.
Act Summary
Chapters and Sections
Chapter I: Preliminary
Section 1: Short title, extent and commencement.
Section 2: Definitions.
Chapter II: Sexual Offences Against Children
A. Penetrative Sexual Assault: Sections 3–4.
B. Aggravated Penetrative Sexual Assault: Sections 5–6.
C. Sexual Assault: Sections 7–8.
D. Aggravated Sexual Assault: Sections 9–10.
E. Sexual Harassment: Sections 11–12.
Chapter III: Using Child for Pornographic Purposes
Sections 13–15.
Chapter IV: Abetment and Attempt
Sections 16–18.
Chapter V: Reporting Procedures
Sections 19–23.
Chapter VI: Recording Child Statements
Sections 24–27.
Chapter VII: Special Courts
Sections 28–32.
Chapter VIII: Special Court Procedures
Sections 33–38.
Chapter IX: Miscellaneous
Sections 39–46 (includes 42A).
The Schedule (Armed forces and security forces under Section 2(c)).
