NEW DELHI: A court here has directed a woman to pay Rs 1 lakh in fine while deprecating her for filing a false complaint alleging sexual assault against her five-year-old daughter.
Additional Sessions Judge Susheel Bala Dagar issued the order while hearing a case against the girl's mother, who was accused of making a false deposition.
The judge said it was clear that she made a false complaint in a fit of anger and to save herself from daily quarrels.
The court said the woman filed a false complaint accusing some persons of an offence against her daughter that was booked under Section 5 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the POCSO Act. This false information was given to "extort property" from the accused, it said.
"She has been found to have misused the provisions of the POCSO Act by filing this false case on a false complaint in order to settle the property dispute, thereby leading to humiliation and defamation of the accused persons. She also tried to misuse the criminal justice system," the court said in an order dated November 17.
It said people, such as the woman, were "frequently" registering fictitious cases under the POCSO Act because of land disputes, marriage disputes, personal grudges, political motives, or for personal gain to humiliate the accused by holding them in jail for an extended length of time.
This was a "blatant abuse of the law," and such acts demeaned the purpose of the legislation, the court said.
It said, "Courts have to take a vigilant stance against this growing menace and have to try to weed out the possibility of false allegations without threatening justice due to the victim or the alleged perpetrator."
"It has been observed that the misuse of even the most stringent legislation to meet one's personal motives, mostly negative, has been an evident problem in our legal system. POCSO Act too has turned out to be no exception," the court added.
It said that section 22 (punishment for false complaint or false information) of the POCSO Act ensured that the legislation was not misused.
"In the present case, the complainant has been found to have misused the POCSO Act instead of having recourse of alternative remedy available with her to settle her alleged property dispute," the court said.
It said the woman was misguided and misused the authority of law and the executing agency of law.
"Hence a fine of Rs one lakh is imposed on the complainant for the offence under section 22 of the POCSO Act committed by her within one month and in case of default in payment of fine, she shall undergo simple imprisonment of three months," the court said.