MADURAI: Observing that there is an increasing trend of misuse of the provisions of the Pocso Act, 2012, to settle personal or political scores, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently instructed trial courts to direct registration of a case against adults who file false complaints under the Act.
Justice B Pugalendhi made the observations while dismissing a petition filed by a BJP functionary, Sahirsha alias MS Sha, seeking to quash a case registered against him on charges of sexually harassing a 16-year-old girl by sending obscene messages in 2024.
According to the prosecution, the victim’s mother was facing some financial difficulties and had sought Sahirsha’s help, who had then started sending obscene messages to them. The victim’s father had found the messages on his daughter’s phone and lodged a complaint against both the petitioner and the girl’s mother.
However, Sahirsha denied the allegations and claimed that it was the complainant who had abused his own daughter and falsely implicated him to protect himself. After the girl revealed her father’s abuse to the police while giving her statement under Section 164 CrPC, the girl’s mother had lodged a separate complaint against her husband, and the same is also pending, Sahirsha said, adding that he has been targeted due to political vendetta.
However, Justice Pugalendhi noted that the lower court had rejected the earlier closure report with a direction to conduct further investigation. Moreover, disciplinary action had been initiated against Annamayil for acting in favour of Sahirsha. “Of late, this court is witnessing the increasing trend of misuse of the provisions of the Pocso Act to settle personal or political scores.
Such misuse not only results in harassment of innocent individuals but also undermines the true objective of the Act,” he observed. Though the POCSO Act grants immunity to minors from prosecution for false complaints, adults who engage in such activities can be punished with up to six months imprisonment under the Act, he noted, and urged trial courts to impose such punishments wherever required. He dismissed Sahirsha’s petition and directed the trial court to proceed with the trial in both cases.