“No criminal liability on the cop due to unavailability of a female officer”: Kerala High Court

July 25 (1)

“No criminal liability on the cop due to unavailability of a female officer”: Kerala High Court

By Kawanpreet Kaur

The Kerala High Court held that criminal liability cannot be put on a police officer for asking the victim to come the next day to give her statement regarding an offence under the POCSO Act due to there not being any woman officer at the police station. It was alleged that the victim and her mother approached the police station at 9:30 p.m. to report an incident under the POCSO Act and record their statement, however they were asked to come the next day because of the unavailability of a woman officer. The Court observed that Section 21 of the POCSO Act makes a police officer criminally liable if he does not record the offence when he receives information regarding it and Section 24 states that the statement of the child shall be recorded by a woman police officer. In the given case, there was no willful or deliberate omission and the statement was recorded without much delay. Therefore, the police officials cannot be held liable under the Act. The Court held that if a police officer waits to facilitate recording of the statement by a woman police officer, so that the victim/ informant could candidly state each and everything without hesitation and while making such an attempt if some delay which was not deliberate or willful occurs, it would not be fair to fasten criminal culpability upon him. However, the Court added that Section 24 of the Act provides the phrase “as far as practicable,” therefore, the officer-in-charge of the police station is competent and duty-bound to record the statement of the child victim or informant in the absence of a woman police officer. (Hyder Ali v. State of Kerala- Crl.M.C 5987/ 2024)

Click here to read/download the order.