The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012

What it does

The Act defines offences of sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, penetrative sexual assault, sexual harassment and the use of a child for pornographic purposes, and provides punishment for each and for abetment and attempt. A child is any person below eighteen. The Act is gender neutral as to the victim, and the offences are framed by what was done to or with the child and not by the sex of those involved.

It also lays down a procedure that differs from the ordinary criminal trial. Offences under the Act are tried by a Special Court. The Act requires the evidence of the child to be recorded in a way that protects the child from contact with the accused, and it limits the questions that may be put to the child and the number of times the child may be called. The identity of the child may not be disclosed. A person who has knowledge that an offence has been committed is bound to report it, and failure to report is itself an offence.

Who it binds

Any person who commits an offence against a child as defined, and any person who has information of such an offence. Institutions are within it: a person in a position of trust or authority, and the staff of a school, a hospital, a place of detention or an institution for children are within the aggravated forms of the offences. The reporting duty reaches a person who runs an establishment where a child may be, and that makes it a compliance matter for schools, coaching centres, hostels, hospitals and employers whose staff deal with children.

The Act also contains presumptions that operate against the accused in the trial of the main offences, so that the accused must displace them. The point is one of evidence and not of compliance, and it makes the trial different from a prosecution under the general criminal law.

What has changed, and when

The Act came into force on 14 November 2012 and was amended in 2019, when punishment for the more serious offences was raised and further offences were added. It sits beside the general penal law. The Indian Penal Code, 1860 has been replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, and the Act keeps its place beside the replacement codes. A reference in the Act to a provision of the older codes is to be read with the Sanhitas to the extent the changeover provisions say.

What turns on it in practice

The site's note on criminal and sensitive litigation, covering bail, economic offences and the new codes, refers to a decision of the Supreme Court in Just Rights for Children Alliance v. S. Harish (2024). The Court held that storing or possessing child sexual exploitative and abuse material can be an offence under section 15 of the Act, read with section 67B of the Information Technology Act, 2000, without proof that it was shared. The ruling took liability beyond creation and distribution. For a business, the consequence is that material held on its systems is a matter for the Act whatever its purpose in holding it, and policies on reporting and on preservation have to take that into account.

The practice area on criminal and sensitive litigation acts on both sides of such a case, and the Act shapes the work on each. The age of the child, the nature of the allegation and the stage of the trial bear on bail and on strategy, and the Act's presumptions and its rule that a child's consent is not a defence below eighteen change what an accused has to answer.

For an organisation, the immediate tasks are a reporting protocol that names who reports and how, a record of the report, and a rule for handling any material that may be unlawful. A report made in good faith is protected, and a failure to report is not.