Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday emphasised that unless we change the public mindset and imbibe a sense of equality at a young age, things will not change. The court also slammed the Badlapur police for handling the case of sexual assault on two minors inside school premises, in an insensitive manner and flouting provisions of.
The court was hearing a plea taken up suo motu (on its own) on the sexual assault case involving two minor girls at a school in Badlapur in August 12 and 13. The FIR in the case was registered only on August 16.
“We are still carrying male chauvinism, male dominance and masculinity in the minds of the general public. Unless you train your children at home about equality, things won’t change. Acts won’t help. It will help in the future if you inculcate these in the minds of young children. Less said the better,” a bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Prithviraj Chavan said.
The bench added: “We always speak about the girls. Why don’t we tell the boys what is right and wrong? We need to change the mindset of the boys when they are young. Teach them to respect women.”
Stressing on the need to spread awareness at an early age at family level and school level, the court lamented the overuse of social media among children. “There is a Marathi movie, ‘Saat Cha Aat Gharat’ (Back home before 7pm)…why is this only for girls? Why not for boys,” the bench questioned.
Censuring the Badlapur police once again, the court remarked that they should have handled the matter more sensitively while dealing with a child. Not only was the victim made to go to the police station to record her statement, but male doctors examined her at the hospital.
“We have found very disturbing facts in respect of the investigation done by the Badlapur police. The Victim was made to go to police station and the victim was examined by doctors, in breach of section 27 of Pocso,” the bench noted in its order, while emphasising that “there has been a serious lapse in the investigation”. The court expresses surprise that even the doctors at the hospital were unaware about the provisions of POCSO which mandates a lady doctor to examine a victim.
State Advocate General Birendra Saraf accepted that there had been a lapse and said three police officers from the Badlapur police have been suspended. He assured the court that the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is headed by Inspector General Arti Singh, will leave “no stone unturned”.
It suggested that the state have a special cell in the Forensics Science Laboratory (FSL) to examine samples related to sexual assault cases. The bench said often the trials are delayed as the forensics reports are awaited.
The court noted that the state education department could step in to ensure that children are taught in school about gender equality and gender sensitization from the pre-primary level.
It suggested that a committee be set up comprising of a retired judge, retired police, retired principal, a lady IPS officer and a member from the Child Welfare Committee. This committee could study the issue and recommend rules and guidelines to be followed in schools to avoid such incidents in future.
The bench questioned the role of two teachers who are added as accused in the FIR along with the male staffer. The judges asked why were the girls sent to the washroom with a male attendant. Saraf said they had informed the principal about the alleged innocents. However, under POCSO any person aware about any such incident must inform the police.
“Isn’t there a legal obligation cast on a person to report such an incident (to the police)? Let the SIT also examine this aspect,” the court said.
The court also asked if the school carried out necessary background check of the accused before hiring him. “Every educational institution must do a background check on its staff periodically. All these things are required to be done by every school. Has this school done it?” the court questioned.
Saraf replied in the negative and said the accused’s parents are working in the same school and hence he too was employed. He has been married thrice and the statements of his wives have been recorded.
The court also sought to know if the CCTV footage from the school premises have been retrieved and preserved. Saraf said the hard disk has been retrieved and is being examined.
In addition, the bench suggested that a woman prosecutor also be appointed to assist the special public prosecutor assigned the case. The HC has kept the matter for further hearing on September 3 when the government has to inform about the committee.
The HC highlighted that mentioning the name of the school by news channels / social media sites revealing the identity of victims was “completely contrary” to section 23 of POCSO Act and in case of such contravention, it would be constrained to direct police to take appropriate steps.
