The Delhi High Court has closed the criminal proceedings against a mother for failing to report the alleged sexual assault on her 16-year-old daughter by her husband, observing that the woman too was a victim of severe abuse in her matrimonial home.

Justice Anish Dayal set aside the charges framed against the woman under section 21 (punishment for failure to report or record a case) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and said such a proceeding would cause grave prejudice to her as well as her daughter, who is solely dependent on her for support.

While there was a delay, the alleged offence was later reported "promptly" by the woman herself, after she took her daughter to a psychiatrist, ignoring severe threats from her husband and his family, the judge noted.

"This is a classic case where a victim herself has become the accused by applying a legal provision, wholly insulated from the background facts and circumstances of the case. A mother is sought to be prosecuted for a delay in the reporting of a sexual offence on a child by her own husband, despite the fact that the mother herself was allegedly subject to severe abuse, sexual and otherwise, in her matrimonial home," the judge said in a recent order passed on a petition filed by the mother challenging the charge against her.

"In this case, to not account for the fact that the mother, who herself was a victim of sexual abuse ... not report the offences as mentioned to her by her child, would result in sheer injustice," the court said while granting the relief.

It added that the trial against the woman's husband, however, shall proceed in accordance with law.

The minor was allegedly sexually assaulted by her father on several occasions and also beaten up by him.

The court noted that the statements of the petitioner mother and her daughter pointed to the "sordid and depraved state of affairs" in their house, where "consistent abuse" was perpetrated by the petitioner's husband.

The court, therefore, observed that it was not impossible to take into account the possibility that the delay in reporting was only because both the mother and the child were living under immense trauma and the threat of further physical and sexual abuse if they went to police.

It added that the legal provisions for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse are designed with the intention to stop the abuse, but it cannot be a strait-jacket formula.

"Sexual abuse occurring within a household, where a perpetrator is the husband or a man who chooses to dominate the household, can be the most heinous and degenerate. Female victims then live under a pall and swathe of fear for their life and personal liberty," the court said.

"Perusal of laws pertaining to mandatory reporting around the world with various punitive consequences attached to it highlights that such provisions are enacted, so as to ensure deterrence against child sexual abuse and not in order to punish a victim which, unfortunately, in a household with domestic violence, is at times inseparable," it added.

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