Mumbai After receiving flak over the circular regarding registration of offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, Mumbai police issued an amended circular on Saturday and instructed police stations across the city to register POCSO and molestation cases forthwith on receipt of the complaint.
However, the amended circular, issued by police commissioner Sanjay Pandey to all the 93 police stations in the city, clarified that the senior inspector of the police station will have to seek oral permission from the assistant commissioner of police (ACP) and the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) for registering such offences only in disputed cases – cases where there is a prevailing dispute between the parties like old rivalry, financial dispute, property dispute or personal disputes.
The ACP and DCP will first have to analyse the veracity of the claim and then permit the case to be registered. The station house police officer will also have to make a diary entry to that effect. Further, the circular protects the accused in disputed cases, as permission from ACP and DCP are required for arrest.
The earlier circular, issued by the top cop on June 6, had made permissions from the ACP and the DCP mandatory for registering molestation and POCSO cases.
“We have issued an improved circular, as our earlier circular was misunderstood. This circular gives various important instructions to the officers regarding POCSO offences,” said Mumbai police spokesperson, Sanjay Latkar.
However, Sushiben Shah, chairperson of State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, expressed dissatisfaction with the amended circular, too. “I don’t understand this stand of the police commissioner. Why is the senior inspector required to talk or take permission to register an offence under POCSO Act. If a cognizable offence is made out, whether the matter is disputed or not, immediately a First Information Report (FIR) should be registered and they have the discretion to decide the further course of action,” said.
A division bench of justice Mohite Dere and justice V G Bisht of the Bombay High court (HC) had on Thursday asked the state if the Mumbai top cop was willing to withdraw the circular issued on June 6. The court was hearing a petition filed by a tribal woman from Nandurbar settled in Mumbai, who claimed that the police had refused to register a case based on her daughter’s complaint of sexual assault.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MSCPCR) had also expressed disagreement with the earlier circular. Both the bodies had written to the police to immediately withdraw it, as it violated provisions of the POCSO Act.
The NCPCR’s letter to the Director General of Police and Mumbai police said the commissioner’s order ‘will cause a serious infringement upon the right of victims of sexual abuse and cause undue delay for victims to their access to justice.’ It also said the order is in violation of ‘the true objective and spirit of the POCSO Act.’