No need to alter age of consent, says law panel

Report advises judge’s discretion, milder punishment under Pocso when sex consensual and age gap less than 3 years

- Utkarsh Anand

NEW DELHI: It is not advisable to tinker with the existing age of consent for sexual acts under the 2012 Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, the Law Commission of India has said, emphasising that rising cases of consensual adolescent relationships cannot deny a child below 18 the protective legal shield against exploitation, childmarriage and trafficking.

But in its report, submitted to the Union law ministry earlier this week but made public on Friday, the commission also backed “guided judicial discretion” to impose lesser punishment in cases where the child is 16 or above and has given “tacit approval” for a sexual relationship with the accused, who is notmore than three years older.

“There cannot be any automatic decriminalisation of sexual acts with a person between the age of 16 and 18 years and carving out a limited judicial discretion at the stage of sentencing is a more reasonable approach,” said the 126-page report. 

“Such a discretion bestowed on the special court can be exercisable in cases where there appears to be factual consent on part of a child above the age of 16 years for the alleged act in question,” the panel added. 

The panel — headed by former Karnataka high court chief justice Ritu Raj Awasthi— recommended a raft of amendments in the PocsoAct, Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to deal with situations where there is tacit approval — though not considered consent in law—by a child between 16 and 18.