‘Highly preposterous to presume that if a girl is in class 12, she is a minor’: HC pulls up Delhi police for invoking POCSO

After the court issued notice, it asked the Additional Public Prosecutor appearing for the Delhi Police on what ground was Section 6 of POCSO invoked, the APP submitted that since the victim was in class 12 at the time of the incident so it was presumed that she must be a minor.

Section 6 of POCSO provides the punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault wherein whoever commits the same shall be punished with “rigorous imprisonment” for a term not less than 20 years, but which may extend to life imprisonment–which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of natural life of that person and shall also be liable to fine, or with “death”.

Justice Bhatnagar termed the submission as “highly preposterous” and observed, “Without any document on record, how can one presuppose that the victim is a minor, even a major girl can be in 12th standard.”

The APP sought time to file a status report which the court allowed. As the investigating officer from Sultanpuri police station was not present in the court, Justice Bhatnagar issued a “court notice” to the DCP concerned to appear on the next date and apprise the court as to why the IO concerned was not present.