Consensual sex with a girl, who is below 18 years of age, would not amount to an offence under the newly enacted Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, a city court has said.
The court rejected the plea of police and Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) that POCSO Act mandates there must be total prohibition on teenagers or adolescents from having any kind of sexual relationship.
“I am afraid, if that interpretation is allowed, it would mean that the human body of every individual under 18 years is the property of State and no individual below 18 years can be allowed to have the pleasures associated with one’s body,” Additional Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma said.
The observations came while acquitting a 22-year-old youth from Kolkata of charges of kidnapping and raping a 15-year-old girl whom he later married. The POCSO Act treats girls and boys below 18 years of age as children.
The youth, a native of West Bengal, was acquitted of charges of taking hostage and luring an impressionable girl into marriage since the court held that the minor, of her own volition, had accompanied him.
The girl, in her statement, had stated that she had willingly gone with the accused to Kolkata, got married and been living together ever since. The court had taken suo motu cognisance adding that the charge under the POCSO Act dealt with sexual assault on a child.
The provisions of POCSO Act suggest that where physical relationship had taken place with a girl’s consent, which is not in the nature of any assault or where consent is not obtained through unlawful purposes, no offence within its ambit can be said to have been committed, the court said.
“In my opinion, it would neither serve the object of present enactment (POCSO Act) nor the purpose of criminal laws to hold the accused guilty on the ground that he had sexual intercourse with the girl below 18 years,” the judge said.
“It is high time that State authorities, its machinery, NGOs and women’s groups make a determined and sustained endeavour to reach out to all in schools, colleges and residential places thereby creating public awareness on various aspects of life in case of marriage at a tender age… That might result in hindrances in getting education due to family responsibilities or economic conditions besides creating awareness amongst adolescents and young adults about the serious mental, psychological, physical health issues that such relation entails in case of marriage at a tender age,” the judge observed.