Headmistress to be prosecuted under POCSO; Supreme Court says anyone failing to report child sexual abuse can face action

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that any person who has knowledge of an offence committed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and fails to report it to the police can be prosecuted under the law, as per a TOI report. The court also permitted the prosecution of a school headmistress who did not inform the police after a student told her she had been raped.

SC expands scope of 'knowledge' under POCSO

A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and K V Viswanathan said the term "knowledge", though not defined under the POCSO Act, cannot be interpreted narrowly to mean only direct personal knowledge of an offence.

The court held that the expression "has knowledge that such an offence has been committed" also includes awareness gained through direct information received from the child victim.


"A conjoint reading of Section 19 and Section 21 of the POCSO Act, inter alia, indicates that if any person has knowledge that an offence has been committed under the Act, it is the mandate of law to provide such information to the Special Juvenile Police Unit or the local police. If such person, other than a child, fails to report, such person is liable to punishment under Section 21," the bench said.

Court cites objective of POCSO Act

The bench observed that restricting the meaning of "knowledge" to information acquired through a person's own senses would undermine the purpose of the POCSO Act.

It said the law is intended not only to punish offenders but also to protect children from sexual offences. The court noted that such offences are usually committed in secrecy rather than in public, making victim disclosures an important source of information.

The bench further held that when a child informs a person that he or she has been subjected to, or is likely to be subjected to, an offence punishable under the POCSO Act, that person can be considered to have knowledge of the offence for the purposes of the law.

Headmistress can face prosecution

The ruling came in a case where the child victim disclosed the alleged rape to four people, including her elder sister, a friend, the school's head girl and the headmistress.

According to the court, the headmistress examined the child's private parts but rejected her complaint and did not inform the police. The incident came to the parents' attention only a few months later, after which an FIR was registered.

Since the victim's elder sister, friend and head girl were all minors, they could not be prosecuted under the POCSO Act for failing to report the offence.

The Supreme Court, however, allowed the prosecution of the headmistress for allegedly failing to fulfil her legal obligation to report the matter to the police.

(With inputs from TOI)