The Supreme Court on Monday (July 13) asked how the state was supposed to stop a boy and a girl from eloping as it pointed out that several times parents in a bid to protect their so-called “honour” resort to criminal proceedings when a teenage girls run away with their partners. The top court further questioned the invocation of the POCSO Act in such cases asking whether it actually matches the criteria to “really become” a case under the stringent law.
The remarks were made by the bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice R Mahadevan during the hearing of a suo motu case on the right to privacy of adolescents. The case was initiated following an earlier ruling by the Calcutta High Court which urged adolescent girls to “control” their sexual urges instead of getting entangled in relationships and “giving in to two minutes of pleasure.” The top court later set aside the High Court’s judgement.
Court questions POCSO use
“How does the State prevent the elopement of a girl and a boy? POCSO is sexual assault and exploitation of children. 15-18 is a vulnerable age. Age of experimentation. Question is, does it really become a POCSO case?” asked the Court as quoted by the Bar and Bench.
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Informing the bench about the current the status of the case, senior advocate Madhavi Divan said “This was regarding the elopement of a minor with a 25 year old man. The individual matter was sorted out. Broadly there was closure. There was a committee appointed by the court. There were social workers who interacted with the lady. A strong report was filed regarding the failure of the system in POCSO matters.”
Asks about case’s nature
At this point the bench asked whether it was a case of elopement of kidnapping to which Diwan stated that the girl wanted to be with the man and had a child with him.
“16-18 they develop a relationship and go away. Parents to protect their honour fasten criminal liability. We have to acquit,” stated the bench.
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The court noted that such relationships involving teenagers were already there before the age of consent was increased from 16 to 18 in 2012.
“It’s not just after 2012 it is happening. It has been happening; child marriages were there earlier also. When the age became 18, it became illegal,” it added. The matter was posted for hearing on Friday (July 7).
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