The government also took note of pending cases in various high courts and said that 1.66 lakh cases relating to sexual assaults were pending across the country at several stages.
A sessions court in Indore has acquitted a bangle seller from a minority community, accused of molesting a minor girl, noting that the prosecution failed to establish its case even by 'leshmatra' (an iota).
The execution of the order dated December 21 stands stayed till the next date of hearing.
"The act of pressing of the 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 top and pressed her breast, would not fall in the definition of 'sexual assault'. It would certainly fall within the definition of the offence under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code," it said.
A Bengaluru court on Thursday issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Yediyurappa in the case registered against him under the POCSO Act on March 14 this year.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside an order of the Calcutta high court in which it acquitted an accused in a sexual assault case and made 'objectionable' observations advising adolescent girls to 'control sexual urges'.
The observations came from a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice J B Pardiwala while reserving the verdict on an appeal filed by NGOs -- Just Rights for Children Alliance of Faridabad and New Delhi-based Bachpan Bachao Andolan -- challenging a Madras high court verdict.
Chief pontiff of Murugha Math Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, who has been arrested for alleged sexual abuse of two minor girls, was on Friday remanded to police custody till September 5.
Ahsan Ullah Khan, the additional district and session judge of the MP-MLA court in Sonbhadra, also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Gond which would be used in the rape survivor's rehabilitation.
Govt said these amendments are aimed at discouraging the trend of child sexual abuse by acting as a deterrent.
Asim Nizam Shaikh, a resident of Khergam town of Navsari district, was arrested on Tuesday from Vasai near Mumbai 'in a case of love jihad', as per a police statement.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea of self-styled godman Asaram, serving life term in a rape case, for suspension of the sentence because of his deteriorating health condition.
The National Medical Commission on Thursday withdrew and cancelled guidelines under Competency Based Medical Education Curriculum in which it had reintroduced sodomy and lesbianism as unnatural sexual offences in the forensic medicine and toxicology curriculum for undergraduate medical students.
The observation came while setting aside an order of the Rajasthan high court which had quashed the FIR against a teacher who was accused of sexually molesting a 16-year-old girl at school in Rajasthan's Sawai Madhopur district.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has brought back Salman Rehman Khan, an alleged member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, from Rwanda. Khan was wanted by the NIA for terror-related offences in Bengaluru. He was traced to Rwanda and returned to India on November 28, 2024. The return of Khan comes after similar operations in coordination with Interpol, where two other accused were brought back from Saudi Arabia.
Section 375 (rape) of IPC has an exception clause which says "sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape."
A purported video showing the boy dancing to a song with four to five men sitting around surfaced online. In the video, the men were compelling the boy to dance with a smile.
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan questioned as to how the police, that usually go to any extent to nab an accused, are unable to arrest them in this case.
The Badlapur school, where two young girls were allegedly sexually abused, preferred to cover up the crime instead of helping their parents file a police complaint, said Susieben Shah, chairperson of Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, on Wednesday.
The offence carries punishment of minimum 10 years and maximum of life imprisonment.
The National Medical Commission has reintroduced 'sodomy and lesbianism' as unnatural sexual offences in the forensic medicine and toxicology curriculum for undergraduate medical students.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday dismissed a public interest litigation over the alleged molestation of a boy by the Dalai Lama, as claimed to have been shown in a video clip that went viral last year, saying the religious leader was "being playful" and has already apologised for the incident.
A POCSO court in North 24 Parganas district recently sentenced four persons to 20 years in jail and two others to 10 years in connection with the case of the woman who is now 22 years old.
Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Kulshreshtha sentenced Thakur to life imprisonment for remainder of his natural life.
The Kerala high court on Wednesday reduced to 10 years, the 20 year jail term awarded by a lower court to a defrocked priest convicted in the Kottiyoor rape case.
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan will take up the matter for hearing on Thursday.
In the order passed on October 20, the court refused to show leniency to the accused and said such 'roadside Romeos' need to be taught a lesson in order to protect women from such uncalled-for behaviour.
According to the procedure, all reports of the law panel are submitted to the Union law ministry, which then forwards those to the ministries concerned.
The Mumbai Crime Branch and the Uttar Pradesh police Special Task Force arrested Gautam along with Anurag Kashyap, Gyan Prakash Tripathi, Akash Srivastava and Akhilendra Pratap Singh on Sunday in Uttar Pradesh's Nanpara area, near the Nepal border.
'If he has been able to overcome this major obstacle (withdrawal of POCSO after the complainant and victim withdrew the charge) I don't think he has anything to worry about now.' 'Cancellation of POCSO is akin to giving him a lifeline.'
"Collective conscience of the society shaken. In our society, minor girls are worshipped as goddess," the POCSO court said.
The newly enacted Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which replaces the British-era Indian Penal Code, has made sexual offences "gender neutral" for the victim and the perpetrator, according to official documents.
The aunt of the minor girl, who was allegedly raped by former block head Nawab Singh Yadav at a private college in Kannauj, has been arrested, police said on Wednesday.
Several girls were sexually assaulted in a shelter home run by Thakur in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. He was convicted under various sections of IPC, POCSO Act and Juvenile Justice Act.
The convicted person, who sexually assaulted a minor girl in 2015, was sentenced to 10 years of rigourous imprisonment by a Special Judge at Eluru in West Godavari district in 2016, including a penalty of Rs 5,000 levied on him.
An official said Akshay Shinde, who worked as a cleaner at the school, was being taken to Badlapur from Taloja jail for investigation.
The National Human Rights Commission said on January 25 that the Bihar government has paid Rs 300,000 to Rs 900,000 to the 49 victims.
'These three wrestlers (Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik) are indirectly or directly part of the Congress.'
The Supreme Court has extended the benefits of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act to minors who engage in consensual sexual activity by exempting doctors from disclosing their identity to the local police.
The non-reporting of sexual assault against a minor despite knowledge is a "serious crime" and an attempt to shield the offenders, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday.
