Mumbai : In a significant order, the
Bombay high court has observed that the biological age and not mental age of a sexual abuse victim should be considered while deciding if he or she is a child as defined by the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.
The court made the observation while granting bail and suspending a 20-year sentence awarded to a 22-year-old man convicted in the gang rape of an 18-year-old mentally disabled woman in 2013.
While convicting the accused in 2016, the trial court had found the woman to be 11 years old mentally after relying on assessment by three doctors. However, referring to a Supreme Court judgment cited by Shantanu Phanse, advocate for the accused, the high court said, "It is thus clear that as held by the apex court, the mental age of a person cannot be included in the definition of the term 'child' in Section 2(D) of the Pocso. As such, merely because the victim was found to have the mental age of 11 years by three medical officers who examined her, it cannot be concluded that she is a child as defined by Pocso."
The two others named in the case are juvenile and are to be tried separately. The prosecution had said that the woman had delivered a boy.
Bombay high court (File Photo)
