Women's Commission To Challenge Bombay High Court's 'Sexual Assault' Order

An order from a judge on Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court indicates that there must be skin-to-skin contact with sexual intent for an act to be considered sexual assault. The judge was hearing the case of a 12-year-old child who was groped. The man who did this was acquitted of the tougher POCSO Act - which entails a three-year imprisonment -- to get a reduced sentence of one year. Justice Pushpa Ganediwala ruled, and this to many is the shocker, that, "The act of pressing of breast of the 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 the top and pressed her breast, would not fall in the definition of sexual assault." The National Commission for Women will now be challenging this order.