Bombay HC imposed a penalty on a lawyer for disclosing the name of the mother of the survivor under POCSO

Case: Suraj Sadashiv Shetty vs The State of Maharashtra and Anr

Bench: Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj K Chavan

The Bombay High Court imposed a fine of ₹10,000 on a lawyer for mentioning the name of a child sexual abuse survivor's mother in a petition under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The court noted that despite the mandate under POCSO Act, the lawyer had mentioned the survivor's mother's name throughout the petition and had annexed photographs, chats, and emails.

The court directed the lawyer to deposit the fine with the Kirtikar Law Library within a week and directed that the petition should be amended to mask the name of the survivor's mother and replace it with an alphabet in the cause title and wherever it appears in the petition. This is to ensure that the identity of the survivor is protected as per the mandate of the POCSO Act and the Indian Penal Code.

The same bench had previously imposed a fine of ₹5,000 on a Pune-based law firm for disclosing the name of a rape survivor in a petition despite the provisions of the Indian Penal Code, which prohibit the disclosure of the identity of a rape survivor.