Police, courts must be vigilant to prevent misuse of POCSO Act: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court recently urged police officers and courts to be vary of litigants with various ulterior motives misusing provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act)..Justice A Badharudeen observed that severe punishments under the POCSO Act can be misused to falsely accuse innocent people due to a rivalry with somebody connected with minors. Moreover, to settle scores in matrimonial disputes, children could be weaponised by misusing the Act, the Court said."Remotely, for other reasons also, misuse of the provisions of the POCSO Act is being opted by some ill motivated litigants. Thus, chagrined and frustrated litigants should not be allowed to give vent to their frustration, by cheaply misusing the provisions of penal law. Therefore, the police officers and courts should always be very vigilant, while addressing the allegations, so as to separate husk from the grist.".The petitioner in this case was accused of uttering obscene words and making sexual gestures with his tongue towards the victim, a minor, while she was in the courtyard of her house.He was charged with offences under Section 294(b) (public obscenity) and Section 509 (insulting the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 12 read with Section 11(i) of the POCSO Act (sexual harassment of a child).In order to quash the case against him, he moved the High Court..After analysing the contentions and facts of the case, the Court found significant gaps in the prosecution's claims. It noted that the alleged incident occurred in the courtyard of the victim's house, a private space, which did not meet the criteria for an offence under Section 294(b) IPC, which pertains to obscene acts in public places.It was also pointed out that the allegations under Section 509 IPC and Section 11(i) of the POCSO Act were also not made out, as clear sexual intent was not evident."On perusing the sentence uttered, the same in no way suggest any sexual intent or words to outrage the modesty or to intrude upon the privacy of the victim. Even though there is allegation that some gestures shown by the accused using his tongue, what is the gesture, not disclosed to analyse whether the said gesture poses any sexual intent or something to outrage the modesty of the victim or intrude upon her privacy.".The Court also noted that there was an underlying rivalry between the accused and the victim’s father concerning roadworks, suggesting a possible motive for the false accusation. It thus allowed the petition and dropped all criminal proceedings initiated against the petitioner..The petitioner was represented by Advocates Nirmal V Nair and M Aneesh.Senior Public Prosecutor Renjit George appeared for the State.Advocates Madhusoodanan KS, MM Vinod Kumar, PK Rakesh Kumar, KS Mizver and MJ Kirankumar appeared for the prosecutrix..[Read Order]