The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the conviction of a man in a sexual assault case involving a minor girl but adjusted his sentence to a life term instead of imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life, reported news agency PTI.
Meanwhile, this decision of the SC comes as the court found that the amended provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act could not be applied to the case.
A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta found merit in the submission that, since the offence was committed in May 2019, the amended provision of Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act could not have been applied to his case, as Section 6 deals with punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault.
According to PTI, the bench further noted that the amended provision of Section 6 of the Act came into force on 16 August 2019. Prior to the 2019 amendment, the court observed, Section 6 stipulated a minimum punishment of 10 years and a maximum of life imprisonment along with a fine.
Furthermore, referring to Article 20(1) of the Constitution, which addresses protection in respect of conviction for offences, the bench said, “The constitutional bar against retrospective imposition of a harsher penalty under Article 20(1) is clear and absolute.”
The trial court was observed to have applied the enhanced sentence introduced by the 2019 amendment to Section 6, effectively subjecting the convict to a punishment greater than what was permissible under the law at the time of the offence, PTI reported.
“The sentence of ‘imprisonment for life, meaning remainder of natural life’, as per the amended provision, did not exist in the statutory framework on 20 May 2019, the date of the incident,” the bench said.
Under the unamended Section 6, the maximum punishment permissible was a life term in its conventional sense and not imprisonment until the remainder of natural life.
“Accordingly, while we uphold the conviction of the appellant under Section 6 of the POCSO Act, we modify the sentence to that of rigorous imprisonment for life, as understood under the unamended statute, and set aside the sentence of imprisonment for the remainder of the natural life,” the bench concluded.
Moreover, the Rs 10,000 fine imposed on him was, however, upheld.
Furthermore, the top court’s verdict came following the man’s appeal against a September 2023 order from the Chhattisgarh High Court, PTI reported.
As the High Court had rejected his plea challenging a trial court verdict, which had convicted and sentenced him to life imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life along with the fine.
The man was initially booked in 2019 based on a complaint filed by the father of the minor survivor.
(With inputs from PTI)