Ethics · 22 Aug 2026
Assertion (A): Under the POCSO Act, abuse committed by a person in a position of trust or authority over a child is treated as an aggravated form of the offence.
Reason (R): Such abuse compounds the harm because it exploits an authority the child was taught to trust and could not resist or report.
Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?
A government school headmaster in Kishtwar allegedly abused a minor student over months, ending in her death after a botched abortion; the case surfaced only after it could no longer be hidden, triggering FIRs under BNS and POCSO provisions and an administrative suspension.
GS4 case-study-linked questions often probe the reasoning behind legal aggravation clauses - testing whether a candidate understands why the law treats institutional/positional abuse as categorically worse than abuse by a stranger.
POCSO Section 6 makes abuse by a person in a position of trust or authority an aggravated offence, because such abuse exploits a relationship of trust the child cannot easily resist or report, compounding the harm beyond the act itself.
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