Every failure to report a POCSO crime will not attract criminal liability: HC

MUMBAI: In an important ruling, the Bombay High Court on Friday struck down a prosecution launched against a school principal and a trustee of the educational institute for failing to report an incident punishable under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act, 2012, observing that every failure to report the incident will not attract criminal liability.

“The intention is important,” said the division bench of justice Vibha Kankanwadi and justice Sanjay Deshmukh. “It would be an abuse of the process of law if the petitioners are asked to face the trial,”

principal of the school in Nandubar in north Maharashtra and a trustee of the educational institute that ran the primary school. the court added.

The incident took place on August 28, 2024, in a school in Nandubar in North Maharashtra. The victim, a class 5 girl arrived late to school was made to wait on the school grounds. On noticing her alone, the school sweeper, who had been working there for over 25 years, took her to the top floor of the school building and made her watch pornographic videos on his phone. Disturbed by this, after the girl returned home that evening, she narrated the incident to her mother. The parents of the child then approached the school’s principal and the trustee to report the incident. After discussing the issue with them, the parents approached the Nandurbar City Police Station where an FIR was registered on the same day under relevant sections of the POCSO Act against the sweeper. The principal and the trustee also were booked under Section 21(2) of the POCSO Act for failing to report the incident to the police.

The principal and the trustee then approached the high court for quashing of the FIR. They contended that they cooperated with the girl’s family and had taken appropriate steps by providing them with the CCTV footage, unlike the Badlapur incident.

The high court accepted their argument and struck down the FIR against the duo, observing that unless the school authority had ascertained the element of truth in the allegations, it was not their duty to lodge the report. “We cannot jump to the conclusion that there is intentional failure on the part of the school authorities which can be termed as an offence,” the judges said.

The bench noted that the entire episode, so far as the petitioners were concerned, unfolded in the evening, and after speaking to the principal and the trustee, the girl’s parents went to the police station where an FIR was registered. The court also noted the subsequent conduct of the principal and the trustee, who co-operated with the parents and the police by providing them the CCTV footage necessary for the evidence.

The judges said merely informing the parents that registering an FIR in such cases might defame them and the school as well, cannot be taken as a threat for not setting the criminal law in motion.