Parliament must consider concerns over age of consent: Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud
Satya Prakash
New Delhi, December 10
Noting that courts faced difficulties in dealing with “romantic cases” of sexual activities between consenting adolescents, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Saturday said Parliament must consider growing concerns regarding the age of consent under the POCSO Act, which at present is 18 years.
“In my time as a judge, I have observed that this category of cases poses difficult questions for judges across the spectrum. There is a growing concern surrounding the issue which must be considered by the legislature in view of reliable research by experts in adolescent healthcare,” the CJI said.
Delivering the keynote address at a two-day National Stakeholders Consultation on the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act organised by the Supreme Court Committee on Juvenile Justice in association with UNICEF, Justice Chandrachud, however, said, “I should leave this topic right here as this topic is vexed as we see in courts every day.”
The POCSO Act criminalises sexual acts among those under 18, regardless of consent, because the law presumes there is no consent among those below 18. Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani highlighted that the average time taken to dispose of a POCSO case was 509 days while in the national Capital the highest average case length in 2020 was 1,284 days.
Noting that for every conviction there were three acquittals and 56 per cent of all cases were of penetrative sexual assault and 25.59 per cent of aggravated sexual assault, she said the entire mechanism needed a robust intervention. Describing sexual abuse of children as a “hidden problem due to a culture of silence,” the CJI said: “…The state must encourage families to report abuse even where the perpetrator is a family member.”
He said it was unfortunate that the criminal justice system functioned in a way that sometimes compounded the victim’s trauma and, therefore, the executive must join hands with the Judiciary to prevent it.
“The long-lasting implications of child sexual abuse make it imperative for the state and other stakeholders to create awareness regarding the prevention of child sexual abuse and its timely recognition and the remedy available in law,” the CJI said.
“Children must be taught the difference between safe touch and unsafe touch. While this was previously couched as good touch and bad touch, child rights activists have urged parents to use the word safe and unsafe because the word good and bad have moral implications and may prevent them from reporting the abuse,” he said, stressing “… there is an urgent need to ensure that the so-called honour of the family is not prioritised above the best interests of the child.”
Noting that the families of victims were immensely hesitant to file a police complaint, the CJI cautioned against entrusting the police with excessive powers. He said judges must remember that children may not have the vocabulary to discuss details of the abuse in the same way as the adults do.
CULTURE OF SILENCE
Describing sexual abuse of kids as a hidden problem due to a “culture of silence,” the CJI said the state must encourage families to report abuse even where the perpetrator is a family member.
