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'If a teacher forces a girl to pick flowers, it will be considered sexual harassment', Supreme Court's strict comment
SC: A bench of Justice Dipankar Dutta, Justice KV Vishwanathan and Justice Sandeep Mehta was hearing the case. The bench has overturned the convictions awarded by the Tamil Nadu trial court and the Madras High Court.
Be careful, if you forcefully give flowers to a girl, you may be punished under the POCSO Act. It is not us, the Supreme Court has said this. The top court ruled that a teacher at a boys' school gifting flowers to a minor student and pressuring her to accept them in front of others amounts to sexual harassment under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act. However, the court stressed the need for strict scrutiny of the evidence given the reputation of the accused teacher.
The possibility that the girl will be used as a pawn to resolve personal grievances against the teacher has alarmed the highest court. The girl's relatives may have a connection to this, the court concluded.
The case was being heard by a bench consisting of Justice Dipankar Dutta, Justice KV Vishwanathan, and Justice Sandeep Mehta. The bench reversed the verdicts rendered by the Madras High Court and the Tamil Nadu trial court, which had given the teacher a three-year prison sentence.
