Judges should be sensitive in child rape cases, says Delhi High Court

NEW DELHI: A trial court judge must not sit as a silent spectator in cases where children are victims of crime but participate actively for the purpose of eliciting

NEW DELHI: A trial court judge must not sit as a silent spectator in cases where children are victims of crime but participate actively for the purpose of eliciting the truth, the Delhi High Court said.

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The court’ s statement came while dismissing a man’s appeal against his five-year jail term for sexually assaulting a five-year-old girl.

Justice SP Gupta said trial court judges are expected to “remain sensitive” while recording statements of children. Their participation during the trial should be within the boundaries of law to bring on record the relevant facts. The judge upheld the 42-year-old’s conviction under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, a special and stringent law to deal with cases where the offence is committed against a child.

The HC held the sentence awarded to the 42-year-old man was based upon “fair reasoning” and the crime committed by him was “horrible” as he had “ravished” the child who was like his own daughter. He rejected his defence that the child recorded the statement at her mother’s behest.

“The accusations (against the accused) are very specific, certain and clear. What else can be expected from a child aged around five years? Her statement on material and vital facts remained unchallenged,” the judge noted in his order. The man, as per allegations, assaulted the child in April 2014 when she had gone to his house.