Counsel Didn't Even Bother To Look At Basic Provisions: Madhya Pradesh High Court Orders Departmental Inquiry Into State's Mechanical Filing Of Appeal In POCSO Case

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has chided the State Government over its mechanical filing of an Appeal concerning a POCSO case, remarking that the Counsel didn't even bother to look into basic provisions.

The Court was considering an Appeal against conviction of the Appellant in case registered under Section 5(L) and 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.

The Division Bench of Justice Vivek Agarwal and Justice Ramkumar Choubey observed, "...it is apparent that, learned counsel who prepared the memo of appeal, did not bother to even go through the basic provisions of the POCSO Act and mechanically prepared the appeal, therefore, appeal having been filed without application of mind deserves to fail and is dismissed."

The Appellant was represented by Government Advocate Manas Mani Verma.

It was submitted that the Appeal of the State is only on the ground that once conviction was recorded under Section 376(2)(N) of the IPC, then there was no reason for the trial Court to not have sentenced the accused under the said provision.

The Court drew attention of the Government Advocate towards Section 42 of the POCSO Act, 2012, which it figured was not gone through by the Counsel who prepared the memo of Appeal on behalf of the State.

"When these provisions are taken into consideration, then it is evident that, statute itself provides that notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force, the offender found guilty of such offence shall be liable to punishment only under this Act or under the Indian Penal Code as provides for punishment which is greater in degree", the Court clarified.

The Court chided the State's Counsel for filing appeal in a mechanical manner and imposed a cost of ₹20,000/- for bothering the system without there being any justification.

It also ordered an inquiry into the whole incident.

"Let an enquiry be also conducted against the Law Officer of the Law & Legislative Affairs Department who had given opinion and sanction for filing of appeal without reading the provisions under Section 42 of the POCSO Act.....In case the delinquent is a judicial Officer then, Registrar General of the High Court and if the delinquent is non-Judicial Officer then the Chief Secretary, Law and Legislative Department is directed to call for the explanation, conduct a departmental enquiry and punish the delinquent Officer who had failed to apply his mind before giving permission to file appeal and submit the Action Taken Report before this Court within a period of 60 days from today. Enquiry be also conducted against the DPO/AGP who had given the opinion for filing the appeal on behalf of the State", the Court ordered.

The Court ordered that the report be produced in a sealed cover.

Cause Title: The State of Madhya Pradesh v. Shashikant Jogi (2025:MPHC-JBP:61781)

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