The Gauhati High Court has questioned the application of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in child marriage cases in Assam while granting anticipatory bail to some people booked under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA) on February 14.
The Assam police began a crackdown on child marriages across the State on February 3. More than 3,000 people allegedly linked with such cases have been booked under relevant sections of the PCMA read with punitive sections of the POCSO Act.
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These people have been taken into custody and lodged in temporary jails, including a ‘transit camp’ for ‘foreigners’ declared by special tribunals at Matia in western Assam’s Goalpara district.
The crackdown triggered protests as the arrests were made in child marriage cases that were one year old – older in some cases. Women were at the forefront of the protests as some of the men arrested were the lone bread-earners in their families.
Granting anticipatory bail to nine people charged under the POCSO Act entailing a minimum sentence of 20 years, the High Court observed that such cases do not require custodial interrogation.
“If marriage is taking place in violation of the law, the law will take its own course. These cases have been happening since time. We will only consider if immediate custodial interrogation is required or not. At this moment, this court thinks that these are not matters for custodial interrogation. We will ask them to appear and record their statements. These are not NDPS, smuggling, stolen property cases,” Justice Suman Shyam said.
When the State’s counsel pointed out that these cases were serious, the judge said: “What is the POCSO [charge] here? Merely because POCSO is added, does it mean judges will not see what is there? We are not acquitting anyone here. No one is preventing you to probe.”
Calling the allegations “weird” in another case, the court sought to know if there was any allegation of rape.
“This (crackdown) is causing a havoc in the private life of people. There are children, family members, old people. Obviously, it (child marriage) is a bad idea. We will give our views but at the moment the issue is whether they should be all arrested and put in jail,” it added.
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Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma cited Assam’s infant and maternal mortality rates as well as teenage pregnancies to justify the crackdown against child marriage.
“The drive against this social evil will continue. We seek the support of the people of Assam in our fight against this social crime,” he said.
Opposition parties faulted the government for the manner in which the drive has been carried out. They said the drive was an abuse of law and akin to terrorising people.
