The Supreme Court on Tuesday underlined the young couples, saying, “Love is not punitive, and it cannot become one,”, even underlining those young couples, even those who should be “left alone” if they have entered into real romantic relationships.
A bench of Justice BV Nagrathana and R Mahadevan listened to a batch of the petitions, demanding guidelines to prevent the abuse of children’s protection from sexual offenses (POCSO), where the minor engages in consent relations.
During the proceedings, the court also rejected the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the petition by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and the National Commission for Women (NCW), which recognized the validity of marriage of Muslim girls after receiving puberty.
The bench said that in such cases the commission was “no Loks Standy”, commenting: “It is strange that NCPCR, which is to protect children, challenged an order protecting two children … leave these couples alone.”
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Personal laws in Islam allow a Muslim girl to enter into a marriage contract after attaining puberty, while a set of common citizens and criminal laws in India opposes marriage of girls under 18 and further intercourse with minors.
With dismissal, the top court’s January 2023 order that the High Court’s verdict should not be accepted as the example also came to an end.
During Tuesday’s hearing, the bench said that while PocSo remains an important tool for protecting children from sexual abuse, there is a difference between exploitative criminal conduct and “romantic bonds” among teenagers. “Can you say that it is a criminal to love it?” Justice Nagrathana asked, taking care that the teenagers were traumatized for a permanent trauma to prosecute the consent relationship.
While appearing for the petitioner NGO Bachpan Bachao Endool (BBA), senior advocate HS Phoolka pressured for safety measures that generosity is not misused in such cases, for example suggesting that the age gap between minors in relationships could be shaken in three years. Phoolka also killed a spherical of 2022 for directing police officers by the Director General of Tamil Nadu, which was not a threat to the police officers not to show haste to influence the arrest in the relationship of the accused, misusing such mandates and smuggling minors.
But the bench was vigorously that investigators could look into the facts of each case. The court said, “It is to be investigated on the basis of case-by-case. Why do you want to sue all?”
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The bench highlighted the misuse of the POCSO provisions by the parents, which record the cases of daughters, often pretends to cite “respect”. “Many such cases are filed by the parents of girls to protect their honor by the so-called people. If we start behaving all matters as crimes, honor will be murdered.”
The court said, “Look at the trauma when a boy should be kept in jail or despite having an agreement with a girl, one has to face the prosecution, which is on the verge of getting a majority … We have to take into account the realities of the society,” the court said.
The bench also reflected on the social realities of adolescent life: “Girls and boys study together, spend time together. They can develop emotions for each other and have romantic relationships. Where there are real romantic relationships; where they want to get married or want to live together … Why should they stop?”
The same bench also refused to entertain various petitions filed by NCPCR and National Commission for Women (NCW), which challenged the orders of the separate High Court on the issue.
In one case, the bodies killed the verdict of a Punjab and Haryana High Court, stating that Muslim girls are legally old, who are enough to get married after reaching puberty at the age of 15; In the second, the High Court handed over a minor girl to her adult husband after a prisoner petition.
The bench stated that NCPCR or NCW had no place (legal stand) to intervene in these personal matters.
The bench said, “NCPCR has no place to challenge such orders.” This further commented: “It is strange that NCPCR, which is meant to protect children, challenged an order to protect two children. How can we determine the security order of a high court? Leave these couples alone.”
NCPCR’s petitions are being disposed of on Tuesday, on January 2023 by a previous bench of the Supreme Court that the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court would not be considered as a legal example.
Court comments come against the backdrop of several pending arguments, including people filed by BBA and NCPCR, who re -embrace with a statutory age of 18 years of consent under POCSO. Senior advocate Rajasekhar Rao assisted the court as Amicus Curia.
In different proceedings, the central government added its presentations to the apex court last month, which opposed any steps to reduce the age of consent under POCSO or introduce exceptions to adolescent relationships. As the first report was reported by HT on July 24, the government told the court that when such weakening, “even in the name of improvement or adolescent autonomy,” would decrease the statutory shield that means the risk of protecting minors and opening the door for child abuse. It states that the current limit of 18 years should be “strictly and equally applied” to maintain the integrity of child protection laws and maintain the best interests of minors.
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Analysis of government data of HT, presented as part of its written submission, raped under rape and child sexual abuse laws revealed an inequality between the number of adolescents and young adults and relatively small ratio, which is eventually convicted, focusing on the debate going on at the age of consent and its unpublished results.
Between 2018 and 2022, only 468 teenagers in the age group of 16–18 were convicted under Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code, in the same period, despite being booked over 4,900 across the country, only 9.55%sentence rate. For allegations under the safety of children from sexual offenses (POCSO) Act, only 855 guilty of 6,892 cases during the same period were registered, only 12.4%.
The respective number for young adults aged 18–22 shows the same story. While 52,471 was arrested under these stringent laws during this period, only 6,093 were convicted under POCSO, a sentence of 11.61%only. Of the 24,306 arrested for rape between 2018 and 2022, only 2,585 young adults were convicted under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code, which was only 10.63%.
