Groping without 'skin to skin' contact is not sexual assault, rules Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court observed that groping without 'skin to skin contact' does not amount to sexual assault during a recent ruling. Moreover, the Court also stated that 'mere groping' does not fall under sexual assault, adding that 'skin-to-skin contact with sexual intent' was required for the deed to be labelled as 'sexual assault'.

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court was listening to the plea of a man who had been convicted for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl. The accused had been held guilty of the sexual assault after he pressed her breast and attempted to remove her salwar while luring her to his house. While the mother of the victim had reached the site and prevented any further wrongdoing, the family had lodged an FIR against the accused who had been sentenced to jail by the lower court under various sections including the POSCO Act. 

The Bombay HC's single-judge bench headed by Justice Pushpa Ganediwala however, stated that the act did not amount to 'sexual assault' unless the accused 'removed clothes of the victim or slid hands inside the garments, making it a physical or skin-to-skin contact.' "Admittedly, it is not the case of the prosecution that the accused removed her top and pressed her breast. As such, there is no direct physical contact i.e. skin-to-skin with sexual intent without penetration," said Justice Ganediwala. 

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"The act of pressing the breast of a child aged 12 years, in the absence of any specific detail as to whether the top was removed or whether he inserted his hand inside her top and pressed her breast, would not fall under the definition of ‘sexual assault', it would certainly fall within the definition of section 354 of the IPC, which penalises outraging the modesty of a woman," the judge held.

Modifying the conviction of the accused man, the Bombay High Court acquitted him under Section 8 of the POCSO Act, sentencing him to rigorous imprisonment for 1 year and a fine of Rs 500. "The appellant is acquitted under Section 8 of the POCSO Act and convicted under minor offence u/s 354 of IPC and sentenced him to undergo R.I. for one year and to pay fine of Rs.500/," it ruled. 

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