Bombay High Court's BIG observation: ‘I love you’ is an expression of feelings, not ‘sexual intent’

In a ten-year-old molestation case, the Bombay High Court's Nagpur bench has remarked that saying “I love you” is merely an expression of feelings and does not amount to “sexual intent.”

Justice Urmila Joshi-Phalke of the Nagpur bench stated that any sexual act must involve inappropriate touching, forcible disrobing, or indecent gestures or remarks made with the intent to insult the modesty of a woman.

The court made these observations while acquitting a 35-year-old man accused of molesting a teenage girl in 2015.

According to the complaint, the man had approached the then 17-year-old girl in Nagpur, held her hand, and said, “I love you.”

He was convicted under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act by a Nagpur sessions court in 2017 and sentenced to three years in prison.

Quashing the conviction, the High Court noted that there was no evidence to indicate that the man's real intention was to establish sexual contact with the victim.

“Words like 'I love you' would not by themselves amount to sexual intent as contemplated by the legislature,” the court said.

There must be something more to suggest that the real intention behind saying 'I love you' was to introduce a sexual angle, the court added.

According to the prosecution, the man had approached the girl while she was returning home from school, held her hand, asked her name, and said, “I love you.”

The girl then managed to leave the scene and went home to inform her father, following which an FIR was registered.

The High Court further observed that the case does not fall under the purview of molestation or sexual harassment.

“If someone says that he is in love with another person or expresses his feelings, that alone does not amount to intent indicating sexual intention,” the court said.