New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to file its reply, within six weeks, on a PIL challenging provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012, requiring compulsory reporting of sexual offences against minors.
A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad, dealing with lawyer Harsh Vibhore Singhal’s matter, issued notice on the petition and listed the case for pleadings to be complete before the Joint Registrar in July.
Singhal has sought “judicial invalidation” of various sections of the POCSO Act, as these violate minors’ right to give informed consent for not reporting the matter and are against Article 21 of the Constitution.
“… the law is well settled that neither law, nor police nor any court can force a sexual assault survivor to report an offence by filing an FIR and no police or court can force any minor in consensual sex to report her sexual activity. Thus, the impugned sections requiring mandatory reporting are untenable, arbitrary and unconstitutional and deserve to be set aside,” the petition contends.
The petitioner argued that these provisions deprive minors and grown-up women of seeking prenatal, reproductive, and sexual healthcare.
“…consensual sexual acts by under 18 minors fall squarely within the penumbra of the right to privacy which has also been recognised by a nine-judge SC bench in Puttaswamy v. Union of India”, the petitioner stated.
The bench was urged by Singhal to declare the challenged provisions “unconstitutional”.
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