NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday refrained from sentencing a convict under the POCSO Act on the ground that he married the survivor of his sexual assault and remarked that the case highlighted the “lacunae in our legal system”.
Its verdict said, “The society judged her, the legal system failed her, and her own family abandoned her. Now, she is at a stage where she is desperate to save her husband. She is emotionally committed to the accused and has become very possessive about her small family. The facts of the case are an eye-opener for everyone. It highlights the lacuna in our legal system.” The survivor was 14 years old at the time of the offence in 2018.
The verdict by a two-judge bench of Justices AS Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan came in a suo motu case the SC initiated in the wake of a Calcutta High Court ruling that had asked adolescent girls to “control” their sexual urges instead of “giving in to two minutes of pleasure”. In December 2023, the SC had said that the High Court’s comments were sweeping, objectionable, irrelevant, preachy and unwarranted.
Pronouncing the verdict on his last working day, Justice Oka said the issue of sentencing had troubled the court. “Though the victim did not treat the incident as a heinous crime, she suffered because of it. This was because, at an earlier stage, the victim could not make an informed choice due to the shortcomings in our society, our legal system and her family,” the court remarked.
The court did not sentence the convict by reasoning that the survivor, who had given birth to a child, was desperate to save her husband and family.
It instead asked a committee to help the survivor decide whether she wanted to remain with the accused and his family or avail of the benefits offered by the State Government.
Also in top court
‘Maternity leave a right, cannot be denied’
Maternity leave is integral to maternity benefits and reproductive rights are now recognised as part of international human rights law like right to health, privacy, equality and non-discrimination and dignity, the Supreme Court said on Friday. The court also set aside a Madras High Court order declining maternity leave to a Tamil Nadu government school teacher and said she was entitled to the benefit despite having two children from a previous marriage. The top court bench did not agree with the findings of the high court that had denied her maternity benefits.