AGE OF CONSENT

CONTEXT

Bande Rama vs. the State of Karnataka, the Karnataka High Court quashed criminal proceedings of rape and kidnapping under the Indian Penal Code and penetrative and aggravated penetrative sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act, 2012, which had been initiated based on a complaint of a 17-year-old girl‘s father against her 20- year old partner.

The girl stated in court that the acts were consensual and she had married the accused after she had turned 18. The marriage was registered and a child was born to the couple.

POCSO ACT

• Under the active consent of" child "is immaterial, and consensual sexual intercourse with or among adolescents is treated on a par with rape
• While boys/young men are charged with sexual offences, the girls are treated as victims and institutionalized in children's homes when they refuse to return to their parents or their parents refuse to accept them
• The only relief available is under section 482 of the criminal procedure code by urging the High court to quash the case by using inherent powers.
• VIJAY LAKSHMI VS STATE REP (2021), the Madras High Court observed that punishing an adolescent boy who enters into a relationship with a minor girl by treating him as an offender, was never the objective of the POCSO Act
• RAJ KUMAR VS STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH (2021)-Himachal Pradesh High court allowed a petition filed by the minor girl’s father for quashing the trial against his son –in –law .court observed that "if criminal proceedings are allowed to continue, the same will adversely affect the married life of his daughter
• SKHEMBORLANG SUITING VS STATE OF MEGHALAYA (2021)-Meghalaya High Court quashed the case observing that an application of the act would “result in the breakdown of a happy family relationship.
• An analysis by Enfold proactive Health Trust of 1715 "romantic "cases under the POSCO Act decided between 2016-2020 by special courts in Assam, Maharashtra and west Bengal revealed that such cases constituted 24.3%of the total cases decided by the courts. The parents and relatives of the girls constituted 80.2% of the complainants. The victim and the accused were married to each other in only 46.5% of the cases.

LAW REFORM

• The high rate of acquittals shows that the law is not in sync with the social realities of adolescent relationships. The High courts have also acknowledged the disruptive impact of the criminal law in such cases.
• Sexual behaviour is normative during adolescence; blanket criminalization of such consensual sexual acts involving older adolescents erodes their dignity, best interests, liberty, privacy, evolving autonomy, and development potential.
• It also impacts the delivery of justice as these cases constitute a large burden on our courts, and divert attention from investigation and prosecution of actual cases of child sexual abuse and exploitation.
• There is thus a compelling need for law reform to revise the age of consent.