New Delhi, Oct. 1 -- Child protection laws cannot be misused for personal vendetta, the Delhi high court has held while imposing a cost of Rs.10,000 on a woman who used her minor daughter "as a weapon" in a battle against her estranged husband by filing a case under the Protection of children from sexual offences (Pocso) Act. The order, delivered on September 2 by a bench of justice Arun Monga, came while dismissing the woman's plea challenging a November 2024 trial court order that had refused to summon her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law as additional accused in the case. The case in question dates to 2020, when the woman lodged a first information report (FIR) accusing her husband and the victim's cousin of sexually assaulting her minor daughter. The FIR invoked several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 354 (outraging modesty) and 376DB (gang rape of a girl below 12 years), along with section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault), 10 (aggravated sexual assault), and 12 (sexual harassment of a child) of the Pocso Act. In September 2020, the trial court framed charges against the husband and the cousin, while also charging the mother under Section 21 of the Pocso Act for failing to report the offence promptly. In 2023, the high court set aside the charge against the woman, after which she sought to implicate other family members. The trial court dismissed her application in November 2024, calling her move "arm-twisting" meant to harass her husband. It also imposed a cost of Rs.20,000, finding that her actions were driven by matrimonial acrimony rather than the child's welfare. In her high court petition, the woman argued that the refusal frustrated the Pocso Act's objective of protecting child victims and ensuring accountability of all complicit persons. She also contended that penalising her with costs was unjust and could deter parents from reporting genuine cases of child sexual abuse. Justice Monga, however, upheld the trial court's findings. He stressed that summoning the accused is a serious matter that directly affects an individual's liberty. In his 12-page judgment, the judge described the mother's conduct as "deeply disturbing." "The matter becomes even more disturbing because the mother has chosen to use her own minor daughter as a weapon in this personal battle, thereby exploiting the child's trauma for collateral purposes. Such conduct not only undermines the integrity and fairness of the proceedings but also trivialises the gravity of offences under the Pocso Act by reducing them to instruments of vengeance. The shield of child protection laws cannot be converted into a sword for vindictive prosecutions," the court maintained. It added, "The attempt to array aged grandparents and paternal aunts, who appear to be entirely gullible and had no role in the alleged incidents, reflects a clear design to entangle innocent family members of the petitioner's estranged husband in protracted criminal litigation."...