CJI Ranjan Gogoi pulls up Centre over rising child abuse cases, says one judge oversees over 400 cases under POCSO Act

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Thursday pulled up the Centre over the rise in child abuse cases. He stated that one judge has to oversee over 400 cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. He also added that the Act wasn’t implemented well enough, and that there aren’t enough courts. On Wednesday, to combat rising cases of child sex abuse , the Rajya Sabha unanimously approved amendments to strengthen the POCSO Amendment Bill by including a death penalty for aggravated sexual assault on children, besides providing stringent punishments for other crimes against minors. What does the POCSO bill contain? - The bill increases the minimum punishment for ‘penetrative sexual assault’ from seven years to ten years, adding that if a person commits penetrative sexual assault on a child below the age of 16 years, he will be punishable with imprisonment between 20 years to life, with a fine. - Adding two more grounds to the definition of ‘aggravated penetrative sexual assault’, the bill includes, assault resulting in the death of a child, and assault committed during a natural calamity, or in any similar situations of violence. The bill also increases minimum punishment from ten years to 20 years, and the maximum punishment of death penalty. - The bill further adds two more offences to the definition of aggravated sexual assault. These include assault committed during a natural calamity, and administrating or help in administering any hormone or any chemical substance, to a child for the purpose of attaining early sexual maturity. - The bill defines child pornography as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a child including photographs, videos, digital or computer-generated image indistinguishable from an actual child and enhances the punishment for certain offences.