Saying ‘I really like you’ is expression of emotions, needn’t have sexual intent: HC

Any sexual act consists of inappropriate touching, forcible disrobing, indecent gestures or remarks made with an intent to insult the modesty of a lady, a bench of Justice Urmila Joshi-Phalke stated within the order handed on Monday.

As per the criticism, the person had accosted the 17-year-old sufferer in Nagpur, held her hand and stated ‘I really like you’.

A classes court docket in Nagpur had convicted him beneath related sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act in 2017 and sentenced him to a few years’ imprisonment.

The HC quashed the person’s conviction, noting there was no circumstance to point his actual intention was to ascertain sexual contact with the sufferer.

“Words expressed ‘I love you’ would not by itself amount to sexual intent as contemplated by the legislature,” the court docket stated.

There needs to be one thing extra to counsel that the true intention behind saying ‘I really like you’ was to tug the angle of intercourse, the HC added.

The prosecution’s case is that the person accosted the woman when she was returning residence from college, held her hand, requested her identify and stated “I love you”.

The woman managed to go away the place and went residence, and informed her father in regards to the incident pursuant to which a FIR was lodged.

The excessive court docket stated the case doesn’t fall beneath the purview of molestation or sexual harassment.

Any sexual act consists of inappropriate touching, forcible disrobing, indecent gestures or remarks made with an intent to insult the modesty of a lady, the court docket stated.

In the current case, there isn’t any proof that reveals the accused had stated ‘I really like you’ with a sexual intent, the HC stated.

“If somebody says that he is in love with another person or expresses his feelings that in itself would not amount to an intent showing some sort of sexual intention,” the order stated.

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