Daijiworld Media Network - Nagpur 

Nagpur, Jan 25: Bombay High Court in a recent ruling has stated that groping child without ‘skin to skin’ contact cannot be constituted as sexual assault under the POCSO Act. The HC acquitted an appellant under the order that pressing of the breast of a child without 'skin to skin contact with sexual intent' does not constitute 'sexual assault' under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

However, the man was convicted under Section 354 of IPC and sentenced to one year of imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 500.

The order was passed on January 19 by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay HC while hearing a petition by Satish, who was convicted by a local court under Sections 354, 363 and 342 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 8 of the POCSO Act, 2012.

"The act of pressing of the breast of the child aged 12 years, in the absence of any specific detail as to whether the top was removed or whether he inserted his hand inside top and pressed her breast, would not fall in the definition of 'sexual assault'. It would certainly fall within the definition of the offence under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code," read the court order.

"Admittedly, it is not the case of the prosecution that the appellant removed her top and pressed her breast. As such, there is no direct physical contact i.e. skin to skin with sexual intent without penetration," it said.