The Himachal Pradesh High Court has reduced the sentence of a man convicted under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act from 10 years to seven years, while upholding his conviction in the case. The court noted that the possibility of a romantic relationship could not be ruled out, but clarified that the consent of a minor was legally immaterial under the Act.

A division bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Ranjan Sharma passed the order on Monday while hearing an appeal filed by Akshay Kumar against the judgment of the special judge, Kangra, delivered on September 24, 2020.

“At the time of commission of offence, appellant had attained the age of majority after his adolescent stage just a few months ago from the incident. Victim had to about one year to attain the age of discretion. Victim after the incident, accompanied the appellant, in a car along with the appellant and there were suggestions to marry the victim and appellant with each other and, therefore, possibility of romantic relationship between them cannot be ruled out,” the bench said. “However, for the minor age of victim, the consent was and is immaterial. The victim was adolescent, and for violating the minor girl, appellant has been treated as an offender and rightly so in view of provisions of Pocso Act,” the bench added.

Kumar had been convicted under Section 4 (penetrative sexual assault) of the Pocso Act in connection with a First Information Report registered in Kangra district. He was sentenced to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 20,000. In default of payment of fine, he was to undergo an additional six months’ imprisonment. He was also sentenced to six months’ simple imprisonment under Section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. However, he had been acquitted of charges under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

During the hearing, counsel for the petitioner, advocate Bhupinder Singh Ahuja, informed the court that the appeal was not being pressed on the merits of conviction but only on the quantum of sentence. It was argued that the offence had been committed in October 2015, when the minimum punishment prescribed under Section 4 of the Pocso Act was seven years. The minimum sentence was later enhanced to 10 years, effective August 16, 2019.

Taking into account the facts and circumstances of the case, the court reduced the sentence to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 20,000. Since the appellant had already undergone more than seven-and-a-half years in custody, the court ordered his immediate release if not required in any other case.