POCSO Court in Delhi convicts man of rape, 11 days after police file chargesheet

Context

• In one of the speediest trials in a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) case in the country, a Delhi court on April 16 awarded life imprisonment to a 45-year-old man for raping and impregnating a 16-year-old girl within seven weeks of the registration of the FIR.

POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act

• POCSO Act is the first comprehensive law in India dealing specifically with sexual abuse of children.

• It seeks to protect children from sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography.

• The Act, for the first time, defines penetrative sexual assault, sexual assault, & sexual harassment.

• It also includes penalties for storing pornographic material and abetment of an offence.

• The Act defines certain actions as “aggravated penetrative sexual assault”.

These include:

1The cases when the offender is a police officer, armed forces member, or public servant.

2The cases where the offender is a relative of the child.

3If the assault injures the sexual organs of the child or the child becomes pregnant, etc.

• It criminalises all sexual activities for those under the age of 18, even if consent was factually present between two minors.

• Each district shall designate a Sessions Court to be a Special Court.

• The state government shall establish it in consultation with the Chief Justice of the HC.

• A POSCO case must be disposed of within a year from the date the offence is reported.

• It empowers the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights to monitor the implementation of the provisions of this Act.

• If a child has committed an offence under POSCO, it shall be dealt with under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

POCSO (Amendment) Act, 2019

• The amendment has enhanced punishment under various sections of the Act, including the death penalty for aggravated sexual assault on children.

• It defines child pornography and makes it punishable.

• The act added two more grounds to the definition of aggravated penetrative sexual assault:

1Assault resulting in the death of the child.

2Assault committed during a natural calamity.

• Under the POCSO act, the consent of a child is immaterial.

• Consensual sexual intercourse with or among adolescents is treated on par with rape