The Supreme Court on Friday refused to apply the stringent provisions under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act to cases of mentally ill adult victims of sexual crimes having a "mental age" of a child.
In a case where a 38-year old woman suffering from cerebral palsy was sexually assaulted, the victim's mother had approached the Court to include the crime under the stringent POCSO Act of 2012.
Dismissing the petition, a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and RF Nariman, through separate but concurring judgments held that mental age cannot be treated as the age of the victim to attract POCSO. In the present case, the victim had a mind of a five to six year old child, although being advanced in age. POCSO applies to child victims under 18 years of age.
Both judges said that this could never be the intention of the Parliament as it had clearly made a distinction between a woman who is minor and an adult.
Moreover, by saying 'age' would cover 'mental age', it had the potential to create "immense anomalous situations" without there being any guidelines or statutory safeguards.