KOLKATA: Charges under Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act result in “automatic criminalisation“, the Calcutta High Court said on Wednesday even as it acquitted a man who was a minor when he entered into a relationship with a girl younger to him. The two later married and now have a child.
Stating that the Pocso Act does not consider normal sexual behaviour among adolescents and automatically criminalises those accused, the HC requested the Law Commission and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to suggest revisions to the age of consent.
Consensual sex between persons in the age group of 16 to 18 “needs to be decriminalised”, a division bench of justice Chitta Ranjan Dash and justice Partha Sarathi Sen said but stressed that it was important to protect minors bel-ow 18 from sexual abuse.
“By equating consensual and non-exploitative sexual acts with rape and (aggravated) penetrative sexual assault, the law undermines the bodily integrity and dignity of adolescents,” the HC said.
“Pocso lumps all persons below 18 years together without consideration for their developing sexuality, evolving capacity, and the impact of such criminalisation on their best interests. It fails to strike an effective balance between protecting adolescents from sexual abuse and recognising their normative sexual behaviour,” the court said.
The Calcutta HC was hearing an appeal by a man sentenced to 20 years in jail under the Pocso Act and slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 by a Baruipur trial court last year.
During the hearing, the HC noticed the constant presence of a woman with a baby in the courtroom. Advocate Shibaji Kumar Das revealed that the woman was the survivor in the case.
The court was told that she had started living with the appellant on her own volition and married him in 2019 when she was about 15 and had a child in 2021. The accused, too, was an older adolescent at the time of their union.
The woman said she and her husband were from a rural background and were not aware that their union constituted an offence. Her mother had filed an FIR when she she was found missing from her home. The court observed that the case was clearly a love affair and there was no evidence on record to prove kidnapping by the accused.
The HC said the original Pocso bill had recognised the possibility of consensual sex between adolescents above 16 but the modified bill, which later became an Act after a Parliamentary Standing Committee recommendation did not consider adolescent sexuality, had resulted in most of the cases ending with statutory rape charges.
Stating that the Pocso Act does not consider normal sexual behaviour among adolescents and automatically criminalises those accused, the HC requested the Law Commission and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to suggest revisions to the age of consent.
Consensual sex between persons in the age group of 16 to 18 “needs to be decriminalised”, a division bench of justice Chitta Ranjan Dash and justice Partha Sarathi Sen said but stressed that it was important to protect minors bel-ow 18 from sexual abuse.
“By equating consensual and non-exploitative sexual acts with rape and (aggravated) penetrative sexual assault, the law undermines the bodily integrity and dignity of adolescents,” the HC said.
“Pocso lumps all persons below 18 years together without consideration for their developing sexuality, evolving capacity, and the impact of such criminalisation on their best interests. It fails to strike an effective balance between protecting adolescents from sexual abuse and recognising their normative sexual behaviour,” the court said.
The Calcutta HC was hearing an appeal by a man sentenced to 20 years in jail under the Pocso Act and slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 by a Baruipur trial court last year.
During the hearing, the HC noticed the constant presence of a woman with a baby in the courtroom. Advocate Shibaji Kumar Das revealed that the woman was the survivor in the case.
The court was told that she had started living with the appellant on her own volition and married him in 2019 when she was about 15 and had a child in 2021. The accused, too, was an older adolescent at the time of their union.
The woman said she and her husband were from a rural background and were not aware that their union constituted an offence. Her mother had filed an FIR when she she was found missing from her home. The court observed that the case was clearly a love affair and there was no evidence on record to prove kidnapping by the accused.
The HC said the original Pocso bill had recognised the possibility of consensual sex between adolescents above 16 but the modified bill, which later became an Act after a Parliamentary Standing Committee recommendation did not consider adolescent sexuality, had resulted in most of the cases ending with statutory rape charges.
