CRITICALLY EXAMINE SECTION 7 OF POSCO ACT AND SECTION 354 OF THE

IPC

Section7 of the POSCO Act and Section 354 of the IPC has become the talk of the legal
fraternity after the Bombay High Court held that touching the child over her clothes will not
make the person liable under the POSCO act but the high court held him liable under Section
354 IPC and he was convicted for a term of one year. The judgement received heavy criticism
and outrage from the legal community.

Section 7 of the POSCO act is gender neutral and it talks about the assault faced by a child
whereas Section 354 of the IPC is strictly restricted to the protection of women from assault and
criminal force. In Section 354, only women can be victims.

Section 354 reads as follows:

“Whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any woman, intending to outrage or knowing it to be
likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty, shall be punished with imprisonment of either
description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both”. The offence is
cognizable and non-bailable in nature.

Ingredients of Section 354 are;

a) Assault or use of criminal force on woman

b) Intention or knowledge to outrage her modesty

In Girdhar Gopal v. State, the constitutional validity of Section 354 was challenged on the
grounds that it violated Article 14 and Article 15 of the Constitution. The Supreme Court said
that the legislation can treat men and women differently on the basis of reasonable classification.
In this case, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of Section 354 of IPC.

Section 7 of the POSCO act reads as follows:

“Whoever, with sexual intent touches the vagina, penis, anus or breast of the child or makes the
child touch the vagina, penis, anus or breast of such person or any other person, or does any
other act with sexual intent which involves physical contact without penetration is said to
commit sexual assault”.
Intention is must to constitute sexual assault under this act and the intention is to arouse the
sexual desire of the accused under Section 7 of the POSCO Act. The intention should be viewed
both subjectively and objectively. In Section 354 of IPC, the case is different. The accused
should either have the intention to outrage the modesty of women or he should know that his
actions would outrage the modesty of women. The sexual satisfaction of the accused is
immaterial while dealing with Section 354 of IPC. Therefore, the offence under Section 7 of the
POSCO Act and Section 354 of the IPC cannot be equated.