Case Title ; The State of Uttar Pradesh vs. Anurudh & Anr.
The Supreme Court recently said that laws meant to protect children are increasingly being misused to punish consensual teenage relationships, and asked the Union government to consider introducing a “Romeo–Juliet” clause to protect genuine adolescent couples from harsh criminal action
A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and NK Singh made the observation while setting aside a series of directions issued by the Allahabad High Court in a bail case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act).
The High Court had directed that in every POCSO case, police must conduct a medical test to determine the age of the victim at the very start of investigation and that bail courts could examine and even reject school or birth records if they found them doubtful.
The Supreme Court said the High Court had exceeded its jurisdiction in issuing But while doing so, the apex court also spoke at length about a larger and growing problem – the misuse of the POCSO law in cases involving consensual relationships between adolescents.
The Court noted that courts across the country have repeatedly seen cases where the age of the girl is wrongly shown as below 18 to bring the boy under the harsh provisions of POCSO, even when the relationship was consensual and between teenagers who are close in age.
The Bench said this kind of misuse creates a deep injustice. On one side are children who truly need protection but cannot access the system because of poverty, fear or stigma. On the other side are those who misuse the law to settle personal scores.
Because of this, the Court directed that a copy of its judgment be sent to the Law Secretary of the Union government. It said the Centre should consider steps to curb this misuse.
One of the ideas suggested by the Court was the introduction of a “Romeo–Juliet clause”, which would protect genuine adolescent relationships from being dragged into the criminal system.
