The Supreme Court of India has issued a stay order against the verdict issued by the Bombay High Court last week, which stated that groping was not considered sexual assault under the POCSO Act if there was no skin-to-skin contact.
A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian stayed the high court order after Attorney General KK Venugopal mentioned the matter.
The top court also issued notice to Maharashtra government and permitted the AG to file an appeal against the January 19 verdict of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court. In the impugned judgment, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court held that such an act would amount to ‘molestation’ under Section 354 of IPC and not Sexual assault under section 8 of the POCSO Act.
Activists and child rights bodies had severely criticised the Bombay HC’s verdict, terming it “absolutely unacceptable, outrageous and obnoxious”. In a letter to the Maharashtra chief secretary, the chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights had urged the state to review and challenge the high court verdict. Following this, there was an appeal to the Supreme Court, which had issued the stay reserving punishment/verdict on this matter.
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