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The Allahabad High Court recently directed the state authorities to pay Rs 4 lakh in compensation to a minor girl in a POCSO case after the authorities rejected her claim on the ground that her medical examination did not reveal injuries indicative of penetrative sexual assault.

A bench of Justices Shekhar B Saraf and Amitabh Kumar Rai held in the October 5 order that the District Steering Committee cannot reject compensation claims under the Uttar Pradesh Rani Laxmi Bai Mahila Samman Kosh Rules, 2015, simply because no injury was noted in the injury report.

“It is clear that the District Steering Committee cannot, under any circumstances, reject the claim of the petitioner on the ground that no injury was found in the injury report,” the bench said.

The petitioner had approached the court seeking directions to pay compensation to the survivor under the 2015 scheme. According to the case records, the minor was subjected to sexual assault and charges were framed against the accused under various sections of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.

The court noted that the survivor was eligible for compensation under the Rani Laxmi Bai scheme. “Clause 6 of the Scheme specifically provides that the victim should be paid a sum of Rs 1,00,000 within 15 days of filing of the FIR. and a sum of Rs 2,00,000 within a period of one month from the date of filing of the charge-sheet,” the bench stated.

The court lamented that not a “single naya paisa” has been paid to the petitioner. It noted that the District Steering Committee had rejected the survivor’s claim on March 11, 2026, on the ground that the injury report did not reveal any penetrative sexual assault.

The bench relied on an earlier division bench judgment of the high court, which held that the scheme requires the FIR, injury report and chargesheet to be available, but does not mandate that the injury report must establish injuries caused by penetrative sexual assault. It had further said that as long as the FIR and the charge indicate the offence under the POCSO Act, no further investigation is required to be carried out by the steering committee.

The bench thus ordered the payment of a sum of Rs 3 lakh, along with compensation of Rs 1 lakh, to the petitioner within seven days.