'If a teacher forces a girl to pick flowers, it will be considered sexual harassment', Supreme Court's strict comment

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.

The bench said, 'We are in full agreement with the submission of the senior counsel for the state government that sexual harassment of a student (who is also a minor) by any teacher would be high on the list of crimes of serious nature as it has far-reaching consequences. , who are much more affected than the parties to the proceedings.'

The court acquitted the accused teacher. Also stressed the need for a balanced decision in cases involving allegations of sexual misconduct, especially when a teacher's reputation is at stake.