ISSUE OF AGE OF CONSENT UNDER (POCSO) ACT

• Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud on Saturday appealed to Parliament to have a relook at the issue of age of consent under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, as it posed difficulties for judges examining cases of consensual sexual intercourse between two adolescents.
• “In my time as a judge, I have observed that this category of case poses difficult questions for judges across the spectrum. There is a growing concern surrounding this issue which must be considered by the Legislature,” the CJI said at a national stakeholders’ consultation on the POCSO Act, which completes 10 years.
• In 2012, the Act raised the age of consent to 18 from 16.
• The two-day consultation, which started on Saturday, is being conducted by the Supreme Court’s Committee on Juvenile Justice and is part of its annual stakeholders’ meet.
• Explaining the peculiar challenge posed by the Act, he said the law criminalised all sexual activities for those under the age of 18, even if consent was factually present between two minors.
• He shared the dais with Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani; Justice Ravinder Bhat, Chairperson of the Supreme Court’s Juvenile Justice Committee; Justice B.V. Nagarathna; and UNICEF’s Country Representative Cynthia McCaffrey. Among the audience were other Supreme Court judges, High Court and POCSO court judges.
• The CJI’s comments come at a time when several High Courts have called for an urgent need for legal reform to deal with cases involving consensual sexual intercourse between adolescents.
• The Madras High Court recently said that it was “eagerly” waiting for the Legislature to reduce the age of consent in the POCSO Act from 18, as it upheld the conviction of a man sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for having kidnapped and repeatedly raped a 17-year-old girl.
• In Vijayalakshmi vs State Rep. the Inspector of Police, the Madras High Court questioned the wisdom of criminalising such acts. In Sabari vs Inspector of Police, too, the Madras High Court recommended that the age of consent be revised to 16.

Acquittal rate

• The evidence presented before the stakeholders included a study carried out by Enfold Proactive Health Trust, Bengaluru, which found that 93.8% of such cases tried under the POCSO Act ended in acquittal after consuming a median time of 1.4 to 2.3 years from the filing of an FIR to disposal by courts.
• These findings were based on an analyses of 1,715 such cases. In one in every four cases registered and disposed of under the POCSO Act, either the “victim” or her family or the special court said that there was a romantic relationship between the victim and the accused.
• In more evidence of how the law is misused to punish adolescents involved in consensual sexual intercourse, the study found that 80.2% of such cases were filed by parents or relatives of the girl involved in such a relationship.
• Girls in such cases, however, do not support the prosecution, and in 87.9% of the cases, they expressly admitted to having a romantic or consensual relationship with the accused.
• A similar study in 2018 by the Centre for the Child and the Law at National Law School of India University (CCL-NLSIU) revealed that these constituted 21.2% of the cases in Andhra Pradesh, 15.6% in Assam, 21.5% in Delhi, 21.8% in three districts of Karnataka, and 20.5% in Maharashtra.
• The report released by the Enfold Proactive Health Trust recommends legal reforms to the POCSO Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to decriminalise consensual sexual acts involving adolescents above the age of 16, while ensuring that those above 16 and below 18 continue to be protected against non-consensual acts under the POCSO Act.

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB