In a significant development, the Supreme Court has suggested that the Union Government consider introducing a “Romeo-Juliet” clause in the POCSO Act to exempt adolescents who engage in consensual relationships from criminal prosecution, despite being below the age of consent (18 years) and having only a minor age difference.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and NK Singh made these observations while setting aside a set of directions issued by the Allahabad High Court in a bail case under the POCSO Act.
The High Court had directed that in cases under the Act, the police must conduct medical tests to determine the age of the victim at the very start of the investigation. Bail courts should assess these medical reports, and determine the credibility of age-related documents such as school or birth certificates, the High Court had said.
The Supreme Court, however, said that the High Court exceeded its jurisdiction by passing such orders in response to a bail petition. The top court said that the directions contravened the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act.
The bench said that courts have repeatedly seen cases in which the age of a woman is falsely shown to be below 18 years so that the provisions of the POCSO Act can be invoked against the man.
The clause is a legal exemption to protect consensual sexual activity among teenagers who are close in age from prosecution for statutory rape.
“POCSO cases filed at the behest of a girl’s family objecting to romantic involvement with a young boy have become commonplace and consequent thereto these young boys languish in jails,” Justice Sanjay Karol observed in the post-script of a January 9 judgment authored by him.
Although the Supreme Court on Friday set aside the directions on age determination, it did not interfere with the High Court’s order granting bail to a man accused of kidnapping a minor and sexually assaulting her.
The court ordered the judgment copy to be circulated to the Union Law Secretary in order to take steps to “curb this menace”. The court noted that it had repeatedly come across the abuse of POCSO.
