New Delhi: Attorney General K K Venugopal on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to reverse the Bombay High Court verdict which held that no offence of sexual assault under the POCSO Act is said to be committed if there is no direct skin-to-skin' contact between the accused and the child victim, calling the controversial judgement "outrageous" that would set a dangerous precedent.
The country's top law officer also said that going by the approach of the high court, anybody can get away with a sexual assault offence by wearing surgical gloves.
The apex court, which was hearing separate appeals of the Attorney General and the National Commission for Women(NCW), had on January 27 stayed the high court order which acquitted a man under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act saying groping a minor's breast without 'skin to skin contact' cannot be termed as sexual assault . The verdict had come under attack from legal experts and child rights activists.
Seeking to set aside the verdict during his arguments before a bench of Justices U U Lalit and Ajay Rastogi, Venugopal contended that touching of the breast of a minor even without removing the top amounted to commission of offence of sexual assault under the Act .
"Suppose, tomorrow a person, wearing surgical gloves, touches the entire body of minor, then he would not be punished for sexual assault as per this judgment. This is outrageous. Saying that skin-to-skin contact is required would mean a person, wearing gloves, getting an acquittal. The High Court did not see the far reaching consequences", he said.
The judgement is outrageous and would set a dangerous precedent."
Venugopal also referred to the definition of sexual assault under section 7 of the POCSO Act, and said this provides for a jail term of three years and is akin to the offence of outraging the modesty of a woman under section 354A of the IPC.