Attorney General urges Supreme Court to reverse ‘skin to skin’ contact verdict in POCSO case

Calling the judgment a “dangerous and outrageous precedent”, the Attorney General urged the Supreme Court to reverse the impugned verdict

Attorney General of India KK Venugopal on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to reverse the controversial decision by the Bombay High Court which held that the offence of sexual assault under the POCSO Act will not be attracted there is no direct “skin-to-skin contact” between the accused the victim child, The Indian Express reported. 

Calling the judgment a “dangerous and outrageous precedent”, the Attorney General urged the Supreme Court to reverse the impugned verdict, stating that the judge had failed to see “the far-reaching consequences” of the verdict, the report added. 

“If tomorrow a person wears a pair of surgical gloves and feels the entire body of a woman, he won’t 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,” Venugopal was quoted by The Indian Express as saying.

In January this year, a man facing sexual assault charges was acquitted by the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on the grounds that pressing the breasts of a child over her clothes with direct “skin to skin” contact does not constitute “sexual assault” under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.