No shelter for POCSO offenders, consent of minor immaterial: High Court

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that granting protection to “wrongdoers” in POCSO cases amid a rising tide of such crimes would send a profoundly damaging message to society, particularly to its most vulnerable — school-going children.

The assertion came as Justice Namit Kumar refused bail to a man accused of raping his 15-year-old cousin, recording her obscene video, and facilitating further exploitation that culminated in the delivery of a child in her school washroom. The Bench further emphasised that the consent of a minor held no legal value under the POCSO Act, 2012.

The case was registered in May 2023 at Chandimandir police station in Panchkula district after the newborn’s body was discovered in the dustbin of a government school washroom in Ramgarh in Panchkula district

Describing the facts of the case as disturbing, Justice Kumar asserted it indicated: “This is a case, where heinous crime of rape has been committed upon a minor school-going girl of 15 years, who has been trapped by the co-accused and the present petitioner by recording her obscene video and subjected her to sexual exploitation by the main accused-present petitioner, who facilitated other accused person also to sexually exploit her”.

The victim, then a Class 10 student, initially told police that her relationship with the accused was consensual. In a later statement before a magistrate and in her trial testimony, she, however, described a harrowing ordeal of repeated sexual assaults, blackmail, and threats.

She alleged that her cousin, raped her, recorded the act, and threatened to kill her and make the video public if she disclosed it. She further stated that another accused resulted in her pregnancy after he blackmailed her into further sexual exploitation using photographs and videos allegedly sent by the cousin.

Justice Kumar asserted that her later testimony was given after she had reunited with her family in a secure environment. “She has categorically narrated her entire ordeal of repeated sexual assault committed upon her by the accused persons detailing as to how she has been forced to make physical relations under undue influence and by blackmailing her at the pretext of making her video viral, which ultimately subjected the victim to give birth to a child in the school premises,” the Bench observed.

The court found sufficient documentary evidence against the petitioner and rejected the defence argument of voluntary relations, reiterating the settled legal position that minor’s consent was immaterial and had no relevance under the POCSO Act, 2012, as minors were deemed incapable of giving lawful consent.

Sounding a stern warning about societal impact, the Bench observed: “In case such wrongdoers are granted protection of any kind in the wake of increasing menace and rising crimes under the provisions of POCSO Act, it will give wrong impact on the society at large, especially on school-going children, being the most vulnerable lot.”

Why does the judgment matter?

This ruling goes beyond the refusal of bail. The High Court has asserted that a minor’s consent is legally irrelevant under the POCSO Act, and any claim to the contrary cannot dilute accountability. By cautioning that shielding offenders in such cases would send a corrosive message to society, especially to school-going children, its most vulnerable members, the Court has drawn a decisive line against leniency amid rising incidents of child sexual abuse. The disturbing backdrop — a 15-year-old forced to deliver a child in her school washroom after repeated exploitation — starkly underscores both the urgency of strict enforcement and the perils of weakening the law’s protective shield.