New Delhi, November 18 : .The Supreme Court ruled that Bombay High Court judgment making skin-toskin contact mandatory for sexual assault of a child is an infringement on the dignity and autonomy of the child. Justice S.Ravindra Bhat stated in an additional concurring judgement: “The reasoning of the high court judgment quite insensitively trivializes — in fact legitimises — a whole range of unacceptable behavior, which undermines children’s dignity and autonomy via unwanted intrusions.”
Justice Bhat stated that this interpretation does not limit the legal operation, but it also tends towards subverting its intent.
Bhat cited an example and said that the spoon being used to eat food, but not the hands, does not diminish the touch sense experienced by the lips or mouth.
He also rejected the reasoning of the high court, which assumed indirect touch wasn’t covered under Section 7 POCSO Act.
This provision is intended to include both indirect and direct touch.To touch simply means to use one of the most fundamental human senses.He said that the receptors of the skin are sensitive to subtleties in a variety of tactile experiences.
Bhat also quoted Benjamin Cardozo, who said that the great currents and tides that engulf men don’t stop their tracks and do not leave the judges indifferent.
Bhat stated, “It’s not a part of any judge’s duty to stretch the plain words of statute beyond recognition and even to the point that it is destroyed, thus denying the cry for the times when children desperately need to be assured of a law intended to protect their dignity and autonomy, like POCSO.”
He stressed that the courts should not make law meaningless.
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