POCSO Act Is Gender Neutral, Misleading To Argue ‘It Is Gender-Based Legislation And Is Being Misused’: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has observed that the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, is a gender-neutral legislation and that it is insensitive to argue that the law is being misused.While dealing with a POCSO case where the accused submitted that the enactment is a gender-based law and therefore is being misused, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma said:“To say the least, POCSO Act. While dealing with a POCSO case where the accused submitted that the enactment is a gender-based law and therefore is being misused, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma said: “To say the least, POCSO Act is not gender based and is neutral as far as victim children are concerned. Moreover, to argue that the legislation is being misused and using the language such as “as the complainant by keeping a gun on her minor daughter’s shoulder had implicated the applicant in the present case so as to coerce him to re-pay a friendly loan that he had taken from her husband” have been found to be most insensitive by this Court.” Observing that any law, whether gender based or not, has the potential of being misused, the court added that the legislature cannot stop enacting laws nor judiciary can stop applying them only because they can be misused. Dismissing the plea, the court said: “The victim, being only of seven years of age having gone through this repeated trauma on number of occasions and period mentioned above, cannot be directed to appear once again after six years to depose about the same incident, only on the ground that the previous counsel had cross-examined the witness in a manner which the new counsel does not find sufficient or appropriate.” The court observed that it would have been a different decision in case the record would have revealed that the witnesses’ cross-examination consisted of only asking few formal questions and not of the incident.