BENGALURU: “A child cannot be reduced to a weapon in the armoury of an estranged spouse. The innocence of childhood cannot be made the currency with which matrimonial scores are settled. Equally, the protection of a child cannot be sacrificed at the altar of a parent’s claim of false implication,” the Karnataka High Court said. Justice M Nagaprasanna made these observations while quashing proceedings initiated by a woman against her husband, in-laws and sister-in-law under the Pocso Act, accusing them of sexually assaulting her four-and-half-year-old daughter during a home visit.
The couple married in 2018 and were blessed with a daughter in 2022. Following a matrimonial dispute in 2024, the husband moved the High Court for visitation rights, as the wife allegedly obstructed him from meeting or interacting with the daughter. The High Court permitted him to meet the daughter on two days in May 2026, and the man took his daughter home.
However, on one occasion, after the child was returned to the custody of the mother, it is alleged that the child complained of redness and discomfort around her private parts, which led to registration of the crime against the husband, in-laws and sister-in-law under the Pocso Act. The court directed the two doctors of the hospital where the mother got her minor child examined, to file an affidavit.
One of the doctors stated that such findings may arise from a variety of causes, including irritation, allergic reaction, physical irritation or injury occasioned by rubbing or scratching. The other doctor also gave similar reasons. The court said that medical evidence, which ought to have furnished an objective foundation for the allegation, does not, by itself, establish the cause of symptoms noticed. Neither doctor attributes the clinical findings.
Hubby can act against wife for mischief
Noting that implication of the husband’s family members, without any specific allegation constituting an offence against them, prima facie bears the unmistakable features of an attempt to settle personal scores arising out of matrimonial bitterness, leading to irreversible consequences including sullying of reputation, the HC granted liberty to the husband to initiate proceedings against the wife under Section 22 of the POCSO Act. It recognises the mischief of false complaints and false information furnished with the intention of humiliating, extorting, threatening or defaming a person.
“It is open to the petitioners, if so advised, to initiate appropriate proceedings under Section 22, subject to satisfaction of the statutory ingredients and in accordance with the law,” the court observed.