Blog Details
- Home
- /
- Blog Details
The “skin to skin” ridicule
The “skin to skin”
ridicule
The
victim was offered guava as the accused took her to his home. What followed was
an unprecedented and traumatic experience that rolled out into a legal battle
for 4 years. Unfortunately enough, the battle did not end when the verdict was
announced but begun from the very controversial verdict. With the recent
infamous “skin to skin” verdict doing rounds on media and gaining hatred,
disbelief and distrust in the judiciary, society is seen collectively
condemning and fighting back. The layman’s version of the verdict sounds
extremely treacherous, but people with legal knowledge might look at it at a
less hateful manner. Although, it stands clear that the verdict is condemnable
and shameful. No mother will wait for “skin to skin contact” or the accused to
“remove clothes” of her child for the crime to be defined as a “sexual
assault”.
Justice
Pushpa Ganediwala passed that act of groping the 12-year-old girl's chest
did
not constitute sexual assault punishable with POCSO but instead constituted the
offence of outraging a woman's modesty under IPC section 354. The reason being,
according to the Court, the girl reportedly had her top on and since there was
no "skin to skin contact", the groping could not be ruled as an
“assault”.
Section
354 of IPC states that “whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any woman,
intending to outrage or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby outrage
her modesty, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a
term which shall not be less than one year but which may extend to five years,
and shall also be liable to fine.” POCSO Act defines sexual assault as when
someone "with sexual intent touches the vagina, penis, anus or breast of
the child or makes the child touch the vagina, penis, anus or breast of such
person or any other person, or does any other act with sexual intent which
involves physical contact without penetration is said to commit sexual
assault".
Hence,
the Court noted that this "physical contact" mentioned in the
definition of sexual assault must be "skin to skin" or direct
physical contact. For it to come under POSCO definition of “sexual assault”,
the court would require "stricter proof and serious allegations"
which can amount to a minimum of three and maximum of five years in prison. How
ridiculous is it to say that a crime of this scale happening to a 12-year-old
girl is not “serious” enough? The Supreme Court further stayed the Bombay High
Court's controversial order acquitting an accused, which had stated
'skin-to-skin' contact necessary to be classified as sexual assault under the
POCSO Act. Attorney General KK Venugopal said the order would set a dangerous
precedent.
Being a family lawyer, I find this verdict not only personally threatening but also
disastrous as it paves way for many such crimes to be neglected, under punished
and safeguarded. At one hand we are encouraging safety of women and rights of
the girl child and on the other, we see a verdict destroying the very purpose
of it. I am a mother to two daughters of age 9 years and 12 years, and I
solidarily stand with all those mothers who are struck with shock, disbelief
and fear for their kids in the light of this judgment. A crime of this scale is
heinous and must be treated so, on not treating which can lead to unprecedented
harm to the victim and the society at large.
I have encountered a case of a 3-year-old
girl, who has been molested by her uncle since she was 1.5 years old. To have a
family member molest her, was unimaginable for her mother or anybody for that
matter. Her working mother never sensed or thought of the unimaginable until
the girl herself told the same to her mother when she was 2.5 years of age. The
mother takes her to the doctor and the doctor says that someone has been trying
to penetrate into her from 1.5 years of age. He till then had been desperately
trying to remove her clothes and sexually assault her. The uncle now is in jail
with all his bail appeals being rejected due to the seriousness of the case.
These cases are heart-wrenching to listen to, and many like this do not even
get filed.
As parents, we need to destroy these elements by reporting about them and teach our sons what to do and what not to do . Our girls have been fighting, are fighting and will keep on fighting for their rights until the men are not taught what not to do. With the amount of mental trauma the victim goes through, or the little knowledge she has as she is too young to understand that what is a “bad touch” or an undesirable act, no case can be called “not serious enough” to qualify as a sexual assault. With this controversial case, two things will be sure- what function does the skin to skin touch play, if at all it and that the judiciary is capable of passing such heinous verdicts if not intervened by the Supreme Court. These very instances give a chance to the termites in our society. We have in many ways progressed as a liberal society towards gender equality and many milestone judgments. But this judgment shook the hopeful self inside us. There has been a ray of hope at the end of the tunnel as the Supreme Court stays the verdict passed by the infamous Justice Pushpa Ganediwala. May the best outcome prevail and justice is upheld. This is an appeal from one mother to other mothers that you are not alone, speak up and fight for your child as we are in this together and the black justice lady will never fail us.
(Advocate Vedika Chaubey can be reached at vedikachaubey@gmail.com)
