Karnataka HC: Intent of POCSO Act not to punish teens in love
The HC made the observation while ordering the termination of a case registered under the POCSO Act against a 16-year-old boy who eloped with a 16-year-old girl.
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The Karnataka HC was approached by the father of a teenager for ending a POCSO case against the boy in 2021. (File Photo)The Karnataka High Court has ruled that the intent of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, is not to prosecute teenagers who fall in love.
The HC made the observation while ordering the termination of a case registered under the POCSO Act against a 16-year-old boy who eloped with a 16-year-old girl.
The Karnataka HC decided to “bend the arc of justice” in favour of the boy accused of rape after the court was informed about a settlement reached by the families of the boy and the girl and orders of other courts not to punish teens in love. “The laudable object for which the POCSO Act was brought into effect cannot be forgotten, but that would not mean that it is meant to punish young children who would fall in love and commit such acts which would become punishable under the Act,” a single judge of the HC ruled.
Justice M Nagaprasanna, however, added a caveat and said the court “is not painting every incidence of sexual activity of any kind that would become an offence under the POCSO Act, with the same brush, but there are cases of the kind, like the one at hand, where the adolescents have indulged in such acts due to lack of knowledge of consequence of law”.
The Karnataka HC was approached by the father of a teenager for ending a POCSO case against the boy in 2021.
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