Groping a child’s breasts with no ‘skin to skin contact’ would be considered as molestation under the IPC but not as a ‘sexual assault’ under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act.
It was ruled by a single bench of ‘Justice Pushpa Ganediwala’, while modifying the order of a session court that held a 39-year old man for the sexual assaultment of groping a 12-year-old girl and clothing off her salwar. However, the court has now sentenced the man under SECTION 354 IPC (outraging a woman’s modesty) to one year imprisonment for the minor offence(Satish v state of Maharashtra).
The court added, “The act of pressing of breast of the 12-year-old child in the presence of no specific detail as to whether the top was removed or had he inserted his hands inside top and pressed her breast, would not fall in the definition of ‘sexual assault’.