POCSO Act: Bombay High Court imposes ₹10,000 costs on lawyer for revealing name of survivor's mother in petition

The Bombay High Court on Monday imposed ₹10,000 costs on a lawyer for mentioning the name of a prosecutrix's mother in a petition under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act [Suraj Sadashiv Shetty vs The State of Maharashtra and Anr.].

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj K Chavan noted that despite the mandate under POCSO Act, the counsel for the petitioner had mentioned the prosecutrix's mother's name throughout the petition.

"Despite the mandate of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act ('POCSO Act'), the learned counsel for the petitioner has mentioned the name of the prosecutrix’s mother in the petition and in the cause-title as well as annexed the photographs, chats, emails," the Court said.

Hence, it directed the lawyer to deposit ₹10,000 with the Kirtikar Law Library within a week.

The Court also directed that the petition be amended to mask the name of the survivor's mother in the cause title and wherever it appears in the petition, and that it be replaced with an alphabet

Notably, the same bench had last month imposed ₹5,000 on a Pune law firm for having disclosed a rape survivor's name in a petition despite the provisions of the Indian Penal Code.

[Read Order]