HC refuses to stop POCSO-accused woman’s access to minor daughter

The Bombay high court refused to interfere with a Pune family court order, setting out an arrangement of sequential alternate access to a minor girl child, of 15 days each between her father and mother

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday refused to interfere with a Pune family court order, setting out an arrangement of sequential alternate access to a minor girl child, of 15 days each between her father and mother. The mother, the owner of a popular restaurant in Pune, is embroiled in a bitter litigation with her estranged husband and, also, faces charges of aiding and abetting her male fiend to allegedly commit POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) offences on her minor daughter.

Mumbai, India - September 03, 2021: Bombay High Court at Fort, in Mumbai, India, on Friday, September 03, 2021. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/Hindustan Times) (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

A vacation bench of justice Somasekhar Sundaresan refused to pass any interim order on the petition filed by the woman’s estranged husband, challenging an order of the Family Court at Pune, setting out the arrangement of sequential alternate access to their minor girl child.

A distant relative of the husband had purportedly noticed that the minor girl was very uncomfortable when discussing ‘good touch’ and ‘bad touch’ and hinted at sexual exploitation of the girl, allegedly by a male friend of her mother.

The purported disclosure resulted in registration of a case under relevant sections of the POCSO Act, 2012, at the Shivaji Nagar police station in Pune on August 23, 2024, against the male friend and, also, the mother, who was booked for aiding and abetting him in commission of the offences.

In this backdrop, after a round of litigation which went up till the Supreme Court, the girl’s father approached the high court, challenging a December 9, 2024, order of the Family Court, primarily objecting to granting his estranged wife overnight access to the girl child, especially because she was booked for a serious crime, allegedly committed on the girl child.

His counsel argued that even a charge-sheet has been filed in the POCSO case, which lends greater credibility to the offences under POCSO and, therefore, it would not be in the interest of the girl child to allow her mother to have overnight access to her.

Justice Sundaresan refused to interfere with the Family Court order primarily in view of the fact that the earlier round of litigation on the same issue was heard by the high court and the Supreme Court.

“I see no reason to interfere with the exercise of judicial discretion because in my opinion prima facie, there is nothing perverse or arbitrary that is seen from a reading of the Impugned Orders,” said the vacation bench. “The Impugned Orders indeed record that the child is not chattel to be fought over in this manner by parties engaged in a bitter dispute,” it added.

The court said the male friend of the woman, named as the principal accused in the POCSO case, shall not enter the premises when the child stays with her mother for the 15-day period. The high court also allowed the non-custodial parent to visit the other parent to check on the girl child by giving a 24-hour notice.