On July 25, 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a man for the sexual assault of a minor girl in Chhattisgarh but modified his sentence from imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life to a conventional life term. The ruling, delivered by Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, addressed a legal error in applying harsher penalties introduced after the crime.

The assault, committed on May 20, 2019, fell under Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which governs aggravated penetrative sexual assault. The trial court and Chhattisgarh High Court, in a September 2023 verdict, had sentenced the man to life imprisonment “for the remainder of natural life” under the POCSO Act’s 2019 amendment, effective August 16, 2019, which increased the minimum punishment to 20 years and allowed for lifelong imprisonment without remission.

Citing Article 20(1) of the Constitution, which prohibits retrospective imposition of harsher penalties, the bench noted that the unamended Section 6, applicable in May 2019, prescribed a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life imprisonment with the possibility of remission. “The sentence of imprisonment for the remainder of natural life did not exist in the statutory framework at the time of the offence,” the court said, setting aside the harsher penalty.

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The court retained the conviction under Section 6 and the Rs 10,000 fine but revised the sentence to rigorous imprisonment for life, as understood pre-amendment. The decision came on an appeal against the High Court’s ruling, following the accused’s booking in 2019 based on the victim’s father’s complaint. This ruling underscores the judiciary’s adherence to constitutional protections against retrospective punishment.

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