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No time bar for crimes under POCSO Act
Why is it in the news ?
- The government clarified that there is no time bar on reporting crimes under POCSO.
- Survivors of child sexual abuse can file a police complaint after they become adults.
More about the news
- The Law Ministry concurred with the opinion of the Ministry of Women and Child Development that unlike the Code of Criminal Proceedings (CrPC), the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012, does not lay down a time limit for reporting crimes covered under it.
- Section 19 of the POCSO Act, which deals with sexual crimes against children, lays down the procedure for reporting a crime but doesn’t specify a time limit or statute of limitation for reporting it.
- This is an important step for survivors of child abuse, who may try to file a complaint as adults but are turned away at police stations.
POCSO
- The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 defines a child as any person below the age of 18 years.
- The Act provides protection to all children under the age of 18 years from the offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography.
- This is the first time that an Act has listed aspects of touch as well as non-touch behaviour (eg: photographing a child in a obscene manner) under the ambit of sexual offences.
- The Act incorporates child friendly procedures for reporting, recording of evidence, investigation and trial of offences
- The attempt to commit an offence under the Act has also been made liable for punishment for upto half the punishment prescribed for the commission of the offence.
- The Act also provides for punishment for abetment of the offence, which is the same as for the commission of the offence.
- This would cover trafficking of children for sexual purposes.
- The media has been barred from disclosing the identity of the child without the permission of the Special Court.
Source
The Hindu.