By Astha Bhumish Shah 

The Himachal Pradesh High Court has observed that a teacher’s inappropriate physical contact with female students, along with comments about their attire, would constitute an offence under Section 7 of the POCSO Act 2012. It noted that physical contact made by the accused teacher with the girls, coupled with the words uttered by him, can only lead to one inference that the touch was with sexual intent, which is an essential ingredient for the commission of Section 7 of the 2012 Act. The present case arose when a Principal of Government Senior Secondary School received a complaint regarding the sexual harassment of a girl. The matter was referred to the Sexual Harassment Committee; however, the girl and her parents did not appear before the it. Since the matter involved the sexual harassment of a girl, a request was made to the police to take action as per law. The police conducted the investigation, and it was found that 21 female students had objected to the behaviour of the accused. In their statements it was alleged that the accused used to utter double-meaning words and touch the girls on their backs, cheeks, etc., which made the female students uncomfortable. In light of the same, the accused was arrested for commission of offences punishable under Section 354A of the IPC and Section 10 of the POCSO Act. 

Seeking to quash the FIR, the accused moved to the High Court alleging that the Principal had erred in referring the complaint to the Sexual Harassment Committee. The Committee also did not carry out any investigation, and the Principal referred the matter to the police. It was further contended that no offence is made against the petitioner, even if the FIR allegations are taken to be true. Examining the allegations against the accused, the Court noted that the accused was a teacher of physics and had no concern with reproduction and, therefore, touching female students inappropriately on their back, cheek and neck and making comments about the dresses of the female students would constitute the commission of an offence punishable under Section 7 of the POCSO Act. Against this backdrop, holding that the allegations made by the girls in their statements under Section 161 CrPC duly establish a prima facie commission of the offence punishable under Section 7 of the POCSO Act, the Court refused to quash the FIR. (Rakesh Kumar Bansal v. State of H.P & Ors – Cr.MMO No. 825 of 2023) 

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