Indian court rules that groping without removing clothes is not sexual assault
Source: CNN
A court in India has ruled that groping a child through their clothing does not constitute sexual assault, drawing outrage across the country and frustrating campaigners battling to address widespread sexual abuse against women and children.
In a judgment last week, Bombay High Court judge Pushpa Ganediwala found that a 39-year-old man was not guilty of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl as he had not removed her clothes, meaning there was no skin-on-skin contact.
According to court documents, the man brought the child to his house on the pretext of giving her guava in December 2016. While there, he touched her chest and tried to remove her underwear, according to the judgment. He was found guilty of sexual assault and sentenced to three years in prison in a lower court, but then appealed to the High Court.
In her judgment on January 19, Justice Ganediwala found that his act "would not fall in the definition of 'sexual assault,'" which carries a minimum three year prison term which can be extended to five years.
"Considering the stringent nature of punishment provided for the offense, in the opinion of this court, stricter proof and serious allegations are required," she wrote. India's Protection of Children From Sexual Offenses Act 2012 does not explicitly state that skin-on-skin contact is needed to constitute the crime of sexual assault.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/asia/india-sexual-assault-intl-hnk/index.html
sakabatou
(42,159 posts)CrispyQ
(36,478 posts)Pantagruel
(2,580 posts)issued that stunning ruling.
58Sunliner
(4,388 posts)SunSeeker
(51,574 posts)Talitha
(6,593 posts)Laelth
(32,017 posts)Sounds like the Judge didnt actually believe that the defendant committed the act in question.
Its probably not her job to re-hear the facts of the case, but she chose to impose the lesser penalty, instead, by carving out a specific clarification of the existing law that could set a dangerous precedent. I wonder if the State will appeal this ruling.
-Laelth
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,862 posts)is a woman.
Jose Garcia
(2,598 posts)PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,862 posts)Words fail me.
Massacure
(7,525 posts)The court's opinion was written by a woman, though I'm not familiar enough with India's judicial system to know if she was a lone judge or part of a panel who heard the case.
electric_blue68
(14,915 posts)😥😠😠😠🤬
Wednesdays
(17,383 posts)THAT alone is sexual assault, is it not?
wcollar
(176 posts)the "non assaulted' woman kicks him in the groin repeatedly as long as she does so through his pants, it's not assault on her part either?
niyad
(113,370 posts)niyad
(113,370 posts)marble falls
(57,112 posts)Time to fix that law.
Midnight Writer
(21,769 posts)LudwigPastorius
(9,155 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)Turbineguy
(37,346 posts)looking for an appointment from trump.
Nitram
(22,822 posts)as long as they have clothes on? Can they grope Indian legislators and judges without repercussion? He "tried to remove her underwear" but that was not considered sexual assault. Something is rotten in the state of India.
Mosby
(16,319 posts)AllTooEasy
(1,260 posts)Last edited Thu Jan 28, 2021, 03:49 AM - Edit history (1)
I know 100s of people in Asia. I lived in Malaysia for 2 years, Japan for another, and visited 10 Asia countries. I have multiple friends in the US who were born in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) and NONE of them believe that this kind of behavior is appropriate or non-criminal.
Mosby
(16,319 posts)Pushpa Virendra Ganediwala (born 11 March 1969) is a sitting judge of the Bombay High Court in Maharashtra, India.[1] She has adjudicated a number of cases concerning the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic in India. In 2021, Ganediwala was the subject of public criticism after she established a new legal interpretation of the Prevention of Child Sexual Offences Act, holding that the Act only prohibited "skin to skin" contact and did not penalise sexual assaults that happened over or through clothing.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushpa_Virendra_Ganediwala
Thats what the Judge thinks, your friends notwithstanding.
JI7
(89,252 posts)punishment.
AllTooEasy
(1,260 posts)Which is a global phenomenon.
JI7
(89,252 posts)as that poster did is BS.
Most cultures have something fucked up and just because it's culture doesn't make it ok.
In the US racism is a huge part of our culture and to just say it's a US thing would be fucked up also.
JI7
(89,252 posts)India has high level of misogyny and this includes women .
We have seen it at times in the US also when rapists are let out without any punishment. And support for Trump .