Romeo-Juliet law & Underage sex

: NEED TO FILL A VACUUM:
SARASIJ MAJUMDER

The Supreme Court recently sought the Centre's response on application of the Romeo-Juliet law to India to decriminalise consensual teenage sex as a PIL claimed millions of under-18 girls and over-18 boys engage in consensual sex but a boy gets arrested for statutory rape if the girl gets pregnant and her parents lodge a complaint with the police.

What POCSO says: -

• Under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012, consent of a child below 18 years of age is immaterial and any person who attempts sexual activity with such an underage person would be guilty of sexual assault.
• Under Section 375 of Indian Penal Code, there is a condition when   “… sex with a girl below the age of 16 is rape even if she had given her consent”.

The Romeo-Juliet law: -
Prior to the Romeo-Juliet law which is in force in many foreign countries, statutory rape charges would apply in cases of teen sex only if the boy was an adult.

Since 2007, many countries have adopted the Romeo-Juliet law which protects the boy from arrest if his age was not more than four years from that of the girl who is not an adult.

The plea:

• Petitioner-advocate Harsh Vibhore Singhal pleaded with a bench headed by CJI D Y Chandrachud that many boys, who were just over 18 years of age, were stigmatised on being arrested for indulging in consensual sex with girls in the 16-18 age group.
• "This grey area of law, a legislative vacuum, needs to be filled by guidelines on how statutory rape laws would operate by assessment of consent of 16+ to 18-year-olds before indicting the consenting adults," he said.
• The petitioner quoted a study conducted for the health ministry, according to which 10% of women in the age group of 25-49 years had their first sexual intercourse before the age of 15, and 39% had before the age of 18 years.