The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has written to the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra to say that it disagrees with the Bombay High Court verdict, which acquitted a man found guilty of assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) on the ground that he groped his victim over her clothes and there was no ‘skin-to-skin’ contact between them.
“The interpretation of the phrase “physical contact” to mean only the direct physical contact is skin to skin is a narrow definition and defeats the spirit of the POCSO Act,” DCPCR chairperson Anurag Kundu wrote.
He added that such a position threatens decades of progress made to protect children from sexual violence. “The commission fears that the judgment may be used as a precedent in other cases to defend similarly placed actions of pressing other private parts without direct skin to skin contact,” he said.
The DCPCR said that it advises the Maharashtra government to file an urgent appeal against the order of the High Court.
