BENGALURU: Not reporting sexual assaults on children to the jurisdictional authorities mandated under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act by any educational institution is a betrayal of the confidence reposed in such institutions by every parent who entrusts a child to its care, said Karnataka High Court on Saturday.
The court also refused to quash a case registered against the headmaster, assistant headmaster and warden of a residential school in Udupi district under the Pocso Act for not reporting the sexual assault on a student by his roommate.
Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order, rejecting the petition filed by the three accused, challenging the legality of the crime registered by the father of the victim under Section 4, 8 and 21 of the Pocso Act . “If the allegations in the complaint are accepted, as they necessarily must be at this stage, they depict something far graver than a mere omission to report,” the court observed.
According to the order, a roommate and classmate sexually assaulted the boy on June 2, but no action was taken by the authorities, despite the victim reporting the violation. Instead, it was projected as a consensual act.
The victim said that he informed the child welfare officer of the incident but the latter destroyed the original letter and made him write another letter on his instructions, mentioning that no sexual offence took place and the complaint was a result of a fight between the two boys. While the institution did not bring the matter to the notice of the victim’s parents, the accused threatened the victim with dire consequences.
On June 8, two boys handed over their mobile phones to the school authorities and on June 10, disciplinary action against the victim for hiding a mobile phone in the hostel. It was then the victim informed his father about the incident, who in turn, filed a complaint at the local police station. The accused challenged the case in the high court
The high court said the legislative intent of the Pocso Act is not merely punitive towards the principal offender, but equally preventive against institutional silence. Any attempt to suppress, modify or camouflage the allegations, instead of reporting them to the jurisdictional authorities, only emboldens the perpetrator, deepens the trauma of the victim and frustrates the very object for which the Pocso Act was enacted, the court added.
