A Plea to the Supreme Court Seeking Compounding Of POCSO Offences in Cases of Teenage Relationships

WHAT IS POSCO ACT?

• In order to deal with child sexual abuse cases, the Government has brought in a special law, namely, The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
• This protective Act has come into force with effect from 14th November, 2012 along with the Rules frame
• The said POCSO Act, 2012 is a comprehensive law to enhance the protection of children from the offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography, while at the same time, safeguarding the interests of the child at every stage of the judicial process by incorporating child-friendly mechanisms for reporting, recording of evidence, investigation and speedy trial of offences through designated Special Courts.

WHY WAS THE TEENAGER ARRESTED?

• The teenager was arrested for a criminal case under Section 417, 376 and 312 of IPC and under Section 5(L) read with section 6 of the Protection of children from Sexual offences (PoCSo) Act, 2012, was registered as against the Petitioner herein.
• The date of incident was alleged to be of year 2014. At the time of the alleged offence, the victim/Complainant was stated to be around l7 years of age as the Victim's date of birth is 24.06.1997. Although, the complaint was lodged after a delay of almost 1 year i.e., in year 2015 and by that time, the Complainant had turned around l7 years 10 months and 14 days old and the Petitioner turned 18 years old

PETITIONER’S ARGUMENTS

• The petitioner argued that whether an adolescent boy, who enters into a relationship with a girl who is less than 18 years of age, can be punished for the offence of sexual assault under the POCSO Act?
• In addition to this, the Petitioner has challenged the Madras High Court's order refusing permission to compound the offences alleged against him, as being contrary to a decision rendered by another coordinate Bench of the Madras High Court in Vijaylakshmi & Anr. v. State wherein Justice Anand observed that the POCSO Act does not intend to bring within its scope cases involving adolescent teenagers in romantic relationships
• The petitioner argued that both he and the complainant were in love with each other for more than two years. Owing to that there was no force in the relationship and the relationship was a consensual affair.
• Lastly, it was argued that the allegation of the complainant at that time could not have been treated to be a case of sexual assault under POCSO Act in view of the fact that there was no sexual assault as it involved consensus on both sides and it could have been maximum considered a case of love affair going sour.

ORDER

• On hearing the contentions, the petitioner (Maruthupandi) was convicted us 5(l) read with s 6 of POCSO Act and sentenced him to undergo l0 years of Rigorous Imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs. 5000/- and compensation of Rs. One Lakh within one month to the victim. In addition to that, he was acquitted for the offence under section 312,376, 417 of II) C and section 4 of Women Harassment Act.
• Consequently, the aggrieved petitioner approached the High Court, which initially suspended the sentence in June 2019. During the course of the proceeding, the complainant filed an affidavit in support of the petitioner’s appeal, stating that she had been in a live-in relationship with the petitioner for the last four years and that they have no grievance against each other, in addition to this the petitioner also filed an additional affidavit, praying that the victim’s evidence be taken on record
• The High Court dismissed the petitioner’s application and refused to take the victim’s additional evidence on record.

What do you think about the arrest and the order of the Court? Let us know in the comments section below!