RNS: Madhya Pradesh High Court’s Gwalior Bench has requested the Centre to lower the age of consenting physical interactions between a man and a woman from 18 to 16 years. Justice Deepak Kumar Agarwal made this request during a hearing related to a rape case (reported on July 17, 2020).
Justice Agarwal was considering a plea brought by Rahul Chandel Jatav to quash an FIR issued under relevant sections of the IPC, POCSO, and the IT Act. In addition, a session trial was scheduled in the matter.
“This Court would like to share its experience as a judge that before amendments in IPC under Section 375 of IPC regarding the age of prosecutrix for consent that was 16 years and subsequently enhanced by amendment up to 18 years due to this amendment, the fabric of society has been disturbed. “Due to social media awareness and easy internet connectivity, every male or female near 14 years is getting puberty at an early age,” said the ruling.
Due to this, female and male children are attracted to and have consented to physical relationships. Males are not criminals here. They’ll start dating women when they’re old enough. “Only for this reason, lawmakers in IPC, when it came into force, put the age of female as 16 years since they were well aware of the aforesaid facts,” it continued.
“Generally, girls and boys of adolescence develop friendship and then, due to attraction, make physical relationships,” the verdict stated. This rider makes a boy a criminal in society. Due to the oddity, most criminal cases involving a prosecutrix under 18 involve injustice against adolescent boys. Thus, I implore the Government of India to consider lowering the prosecutrix’s age from 18 to 16 as before changes to correct injustice.”
