CHHATRAPATI SAMBHAJINAGAR: The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has ruled that courts cannot award a sentence below the statutory minimum prescribed under a law, and increased the jail term of a rape convict from seven years to 20 years in a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
Justice Rajnish R Vyas, in an order dated February 6, exercised appellate powers under Section 386 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to modify the sentence awarded by a special court in Nanded on June 20, 2024.
The trial court had convicted the accused for the rape of a 15-year-old girl but imposed a sentence of seven years’ imprisonment. The high court noted that while the conviction was legally sound, the sentence fell short of the mandatory minimum prescribed under Section 6 of the POCSO Act, which deals with aggravated penetrative sexual assault and carries a minimum punishment of 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment.
“The trial court has rightly convicted but has not imposed the statutory minimum sentence on the accused,” the bench observed.
Justice Vyas clarified that the revised punishment could not be termed as an “enhancement” of sentence in the conventional sense, but rather a correction to ensure compliance with the law. “The increase in the length of sentence may be a consequence of awarding the statutory minimum sentence… but it cannot be called an enhancement of the sentence,” the court said.
The ruling underscores that courts are bound by the minimum sentencing framework laid down by Parliament in cases involving serious offences under special statutes such as POCSO, and cannot exercise discretion to reduce punishment below the mandated threshold.
