Nithyakalyani Narayanan. V
The Madhya Pradesh High Court requested the Centre to reduce the age of consent for sexual intercourse from 18 to 16 years to set right the “injustice going on with adolescent boys” who enter into consensual sexual relationships.
The Court was hearing a request to quash a case against a 23-year-old man for rape and other offences under the IPC, POCSO Act and the IT Act.
The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013 raised the age of consent for sex by girls from 16 to 18 years. Justice Deepak Kumar Agarwal opined that it has disturbed the fabric of society and that it has led to adolescent boys being treated as criminals in society, which is unfair. The accused offered the minor victim coaching classes. It was alleged that the man handed her a juice which made her unconscious and was involved in sexual intercourse, which he recorded. The victim claimed that he used to blackmail her by threatening to circulate the video and forcing her to have sexual intercourse with him several times later. The minor also complained about a student who used to come to her house and commit sexual intercourse with her many times.
The accused’s counsel argued that there was a delay in the filing of the complaint by the victim by nearly seven months and that if any sexual intercourse had occurred, it was consensual.
The court remarked that “Now a days, every male or female near the age of 14 years due to social media awareness and easily accessible internet connectivity is getting puberty in early age. Owing to this, female and male child are getting attraction and these attractions are resulting into physical relationship with consent. In these cases, male persons are not at all criminal. It is only a matter of age when they come into contact with female and develop physical relationship.”
The Court cited Vijayalakshmi & Anr. v. State, a 2021 Madras High Court ruling which highlighted the misuse of the POCSO Act by families to sue their minor daughters’ partners. It was observed in that order that the intention of the POCSO Act was never to punish an adolescent boy who engages in a relationship with a minor girl by treating him as an offender.
The Court quashed the FIR and all subsequent proceedings.
Name of the case: Rahul Chandel Jatav v. State of Madhya Pradesh
Bench: Justice Deepak Kumar Agarwal
Click here to access the judgment.