‘Sex with girl under 18 no offence’
A Delhi court rejected the plea of the police and Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) and said that consensual sex below 18-years of age would not amount to an offence under the newly enacted Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Additional sessions judge Dharmesh Sharma, while rejecting the plea of police officials said, “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”
The court said this after the Delhi police and Delhi Commission for Women filed a plea saying that Pocso Act mandates there must be total prohibition upon teena-gers or adolescents from having any kind of sexual relationship. However, the court also observed that there lies a greater responsibility on public and the state, including the police, in spreading and creating public awareness about the impact of a girl or boy marrying at a tender age or indulging in unsafe sexual activities.
“In my opinion it would neither serve the object of present enactment, 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, adding that it would not be good for the girl’s health if her husband is sent to jail. The observations came while acquitting a 22-year-old youth of charges of kidnapping and raping a 15-year-old girl whom he later married. The Pocso Act treats girls and boys as children who are below 18 years of age. The provisions of Pocso Act suggests 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 can be said to have been committed, the court said.
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