Madras HC imposes Rs 25K on suspects who revealed POCSO victim's name
MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court recently imposed Rs 25,000 cost on six accused for revealing the name of a POCSO victim in their petition seeking to quash the chargesheet filed against them in the case.
Dismissing their petition, Justice L Victoria Gowri directed the accused to pay the amount to the victim in the form of a demand draft by February 12.
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 mandates that courts, police and media should ensure that the identity of victims are kept confidential and any details such as name, photograph, family details, neighbourhood, etc are not disclosed to the public.
However, the petitioners, which included the father and a few other relatives of the victim, had mentioned the name of the victim as the second respondent in the petition , the judge noted. She condemned the conduct of the petitioners' counsel and imposed cost.
The judge further observed that a careful reading of the chargesheet gave her the impression that there is a clear allegation of sexual assault against the victim.
Citing the seriousness of the allegations, she refused to interfere with the chargesheet and dismissed the petition. She also directed the Registry to delete the name of the victim from the case documents and replace it with 'XXXX'. The case was posted on February 12.
The petitioners were booked in 2024 for abetting and committing sexual assault on the victim. A final report was filed against them last year under Sections 294(b) and 323 of IPC and Sections 7, 8, 16, 17, 9(n), 10, 11(1) and 12 of the POCSO Act, 2012 and the case is pending before the special court in Madurai.
The petitioners claimed they have been falsely implicated in the case.