POCSO Act 2012 Section 19: Mandatory Reporting of Offences (2026)

Explainer · Criminal Law · POCSO

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

Section 19 of the POCSO Act, 2012 makes reporting a legal duty. Anyone who knows that a child has been sexually abused, or fears that a child is likely to be, must report it to the Special Juvenile Police Unit or the local police. The duty falls on every person, not only parents or police, and a report can also be made through the Childline helpline 1098. This page explains who must report, how the report is recorded and acted upon, what happens if you fail to report, the protection for those who report in good faith, and the key case law. Last verified October 2026.

01The short answer

Section 19 is the reporting section of POCSO. It says that any person who has knowledge that an offence under the Act has been committed, or who apprehends that one is likely to be committed, must report it to the Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU) or to the local police.

The duty is on every person. A report can also be made through the Childline helpline 1098. The section then sets out how the report is recorded, how the child is cared for, and how the matter reaches the Child Welfare Committee and the Special Court.

02Who must report, and to whom

Section 19 casts a wide net. The duty is not limited to the child's family. It applies to teachers, doctors, neighbours, staff of a children's home, and the public at large.

• Who: any person with knowledge, or apprehension, of a POCSO offence. A child can also make the report.
• To whom: the Special Juvenile Police Unit or the local police. A report through the Childline number 1098 is a common route.
• Professionals: doctors, teachers and institutions carry the duty like anyone else, and failure by a person in charge of an institution is treated more seriously.

03How the report is recorded and acted upon

Section 19 builds in safeguards so that a report is taken down properly and the child is protected at once.

• The report is recorded in writing, read over to the person, and entered in a book kept by the police unit.
• If the person reporting is a child, the report is recorded in simple language so the child understands it.
• Where needed, the police unit must make immediate arrangements for the care and protection of the child, such as admission to a shelter home or urgent medical care, within 24 hours.
• The police unit must report the matter to the Child Welfare Committee and the Special Court without delay.

04What happens if you fail to report

Failure to report, or to record, a POCSO offence is itself an offence, but it is punished under Section 21, not Section 19. Section 19 creates the duty, and Section 21 provides the punishment for breaking it.

Under Section 21, a person who fails to report or record an offence can be punished with imprisonment up to six months, or fine, or both. A person in charge of a company or an institution who fails to report faces a longer term of up to one year with fine. A child is not punished for failing to report.

05Protection for the person who reports

So that people are not afraid to come forward, Section 19 protects a person who reports in good faith. No civil or criminal liability attaches to a person for giving the information in good faith for the purpose of the Act.

This good faith protection is important for doctors, teachers and others who act on a reasonable belief. It does not protect a false report made with a bad motive.

06Key case law

High Courts have treated the duty under Section 19, read with the punishment under Section 21, as a serious obligation, especially for doctors and schools. Courts have declined to quash proceedings against professionals and institutions that knew of abuse and stayed silent.

At the same time, courts have recognised the tension between mandatory reporting and the confidentiality a minor may seek, an issue that has come up in cases on consensual relationships between adolescents.

07Where Claw fits

Claw is an all-in-one legaltech platform for Indian advocates, law firms, and corporate legal teams, combining AI-based case search, an AI legal assistant (Legal GPT), case management, and compliance automation across all Indian courts and tribunals.

How the reporting duty under Section 19, and the punishment under Section 21, have been applied to doctors, schools and others turns on the case law. Claw lets you search more than 30 crore judgments on Section 19 of the POCSO Act, by party or advocate, with results in under 5 seconds, and reported authority runs from Supreme Court rulings of 1950 and High Court rulings of 1990 to the latest orders. You can also follow a live matter, with its orders and hearings, across 9,102 courts, benches and forums. Claw does not use the documents you upload to train its AI models.

Create a free Claw account to see how Section 19 has been applied and to track a pending POCSO matter. To research the wider body of law, see case search across Indian courts.

08Sources and further reading

• India Code (official text of the POCSO Act, 2012): indiacode.nic.in
• Ministry of Women and Child Development: wcd.nic.in
• National Commission for Protection of Child Rights: ncpcr.gov.in
• Claw: clawlaw.in

This explainer is general information, not legal advice. The law changes through amendments and judgments, so check the current text and take advice from counsel before you act.

09Frequently asked questions