‘Consensual sex with girl below 18 yrs no offence under POCSO’

Consensual sex with a girl, who is below 18 years of age, would not amount to an offence under the newly enacted Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, a Delhi court has said.

The court rejected the plea of police and Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) that POCSO Act mandates there must be total prohibition upon teenagers or adolescents from having any kind of sexual relationship. ‘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. ‘But there lies a greater responsibility on all of us, the state including police in spreading and creating public awareness about the impact of girl or boy marrying at a tender age or indulging in unsafe sexual activities,’ Additional Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma said.

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 as child the girls and boys who are below 18 years of age. It suggests that where physical relationship had taken place with a girl’s consent, no offence within its ambit can be said to have been committed, the court said.