RECENTLY during a keynote address at the National Annual Stakeholders Consultation on Child Protection, Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud asked lawmakers to address the “growing concern” on the criminalisation of adolescents who engage in consensual sexual activity under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The 2012 Act fixes the minimum age of consent at 18. “As you are no doubt aware, the POCSO Act criminalises all sexual activity for those under the age of 18, regardless of whether consent is factually present between the two minors in a particular case. In my time as a judge, I have observed that this category of cases poses difficult questions for judges ac ross the spectrum,” the CJI said.
This statement has sparked a conversation again among jurists who are bound by law because under the POCSO Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC), any sexual act with a female below 18 years of age does amount to rape and her consent has no meaning.
A detailed report by the Indian Ins -titute of Population Studies statesthat among those people who reported to be in pre-marital romantic partnerships, 42% of men and 26% of women admitted to engaging in sex with their partners, with a sizeable number being under the age of 18. Therefore, criminalising sex between adolescents in a society where it is quite prevalent would lead to ma king thousands of men susceptible to rape cases whenever the issue of lack of consent comes up.
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