MP News: High Court Orders Departmental Inquiry Over State Appeal In POCSO Case

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Madhya Pradesh High Court has ordered a departmental inquiry into how the state filed an appeal in a POCSO case after Tikamgarh’s trial court had convicted the accused with 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment.

The case involved an appeal against the conviction of Shashikant Jogi under Sections 5(l) and 6 of the POCSO Act. The High Court criticised the state’s counsel for filing the appeal in a mechanical manner, imposing a cost of Rs 20,000 for unnecessarily burdening the judicial system.

The original criminal appeal was filed by state, aggrieved by the January 24, 2023, judgment of the Special Judge (POCSO Act), Tikamgarh, which convicted Jogi and sentenced him to 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment.

A division bench of Justice Vivek Agarwal and Justice Ramkumar Choubey observed, “It is apparent that the learned counsel who prepared the memo of appeal did not bother to go through the basic provisions of POCSO Act and mechanically prepared the appeal. Therefore, the appeal, having been filed without application of mind, deserves to fail and is dismissed.”

The state’s appeal argued that since conviction was recorded under Section 376(2)(N) of IPC, the trial court should have sentenced the accused under that provision. The High Court drew the government advocate’s attention to Section 42 of POCSO Act, 2012, which was not considered by the counsel who drafted the appeal on behalf of state.