Section 2

Section 2 is the definitional bedrock of the entire POCSO Act. Every substantive offence — penetrative sexual assault, aggravated penetrative sexual assault, sexual assault, sexual harassment, use of child for pornography — turns on these definitions. **'Child' — the single most important definition:** Section 2(c) defines 'child' as any person below the age of 18 years. This is the Act's outer boundary: POCSO applies only when the victim is below 18 at the time of the offence. The age is determined at the date of the offence, not the date of filing the complaint or the trial. If a victim was 17 years and 11 months old at the time of the act, POCSO applies in full. If they were 18 years and 1 day old, POCSO does not apply (though other laws — IPC/BNS — may). **Gender-neutral scope:** Unlike the IPC which historically treated rape as an offence against women only, POCSO is explicitly gender-neutral. Section 2(c)'s definition of 'child' covers both male and female children. Any person below 18 — regardless of gender — is protected. This was a conscious legislative choice, recognising that sexual offences against male children were widely under-reported and unprotected. **'Shared household' — significance for aggravated offences:** Section 2(i) defines 'shared household' as a household where the accused lives or has lived with the child in a domestic relationship. This definition feeds directly into Section 5 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) — offences committed by persons in a domestic or household relationship are aggravated, carrying higher minimum sentences. A stepfather, live-in partner of a parent, or guardian living in the same household as the child falls within the enhanced liability framework. **Cross-references to substantive sections:** The definitions in Section 2 largely cross-refer to the substantive sections themselves (2(a) → Section 5; 2(e) → Section 3; 2(g) → Section 7; 2(h) → Section 11) — meaning the definitions are distributed across the Act, not centralised. Reading Section 2 alone is insufficient; it must be read together with each substantive section to understand the complete definitional framework. **Special Court and Special Public Prosecutor:** Section 2(j) and 2(k) define the dedicated institutional machinery created by POCSO — Special Courts under Section 28 and Special Public Prosecutors under Section 32. These definitions signal that POCSO operates through a parallel, dedicated judicial infrastructure, not the ordinary sessions court framework.