LUCKNOW, Jan. 17 -- The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has ruled that compensation to a child, who is a victim of penetrative sexual assault, cannot be denied on the ground that the medical record does not indicate injury to the private parts. The court held that the presence or absence of such injury is immaterial. The division bench of Justice Shekhar B Saraf and Justice Manjive Shukla passed the judgement on January 14 on a petition filed by a victim through her mother, seeking directives to provide compensation in a case under Section 4 (penetrative sexual assault) of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso Act). Considering the findings, the court directed that a compensation of Rs.3 lakh be paid to the victim immediately within 10 days. The victim had been denied compensation promised under 'Uttar Pradesh Rani Lakshmi Bai Mahila Samman Kosh Rules, 2015' on the ground that there was no evidence of "penetrating injury". "Under the scheme, compensation is to be paid to the victim of penetrative sexual assault not because the victim has sustained injuries during the penetrative sexual assault, but due to the very fact of having suffered the penetrative sexual assault. Therefore, till such time, the offence is covered within the definition of penetrative sexual assault as per Section 3 of the Pocso Act, it is immaterial whether there is any injury or not and only because there is no injury that cannot be a ground to refuse compensation to such victims," the court said. The scheme in question provides that a victim of penetrative sexual assault will receive an aggregate compensation of Rs.1 lakh - Rs.3 lakh within 15 days of filing of the FIR and the balance within a month of filing of the charge sheet. The state counsel defended a district steering committee's decision to keep the victim's claim in abeyance, arguing that injury is a pre-requisite for grant of compensation under the scheme. "In light of the same, since charge sheet has already been filed in the present case, we direct the compensation of Rs 3 lakh to be paid to the victim immediately within a period of 10 days from date," the court ordered....