Error corrected: The Hindu Editorial on interpreting POCSO Act
The Supreme Court has done well to correct an egregious error of interpretation committed by a judge in the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court in holding that sexual assault on a child victim would require “skin-to-skin” contact. It has set aside two judgments that acquitted two offenders against children from the graver charge of sexual assault, even while sentencing them to short prison terms for lesser offences. The NCW also questioned the Court’s understanding of a POCSO provision, arguing that the law does not brook the sort of dilution that led to the Court ignoring the basic fact that the entire Act is aimed at penalising actions rooted in sexual intent. While restoring the trial court’s conviction for ‘sexual assault’ in one case, and ‘aggravated sexual assault’ in the other, the apex court has rejected attempts to interpret a law in favour of the accused when there was no real ambiguity in it.
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