New Delhi, December 21
Days after Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud urged Parliament to consider growing concerns regarding the age of consent for sex under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012, the government said there was no plan to revisit the issue.
“(The question) Does not arise,” Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said, answering CPI MP Binoy Viswam’s question as to whether the Centre was considering lowering the age of consent from 18 to 16 years to prevent the criminalisation of consensual relationships between teenagers.
The minister said the POCSO Act defined a child as any person below the age of 18 years. “The POCSO Act provides punishment as per the gravity of the offence. The Act was amended in 2019 to introduce more stringent punishment, including the death penalty, to deter the perpetrators and prevent such crimes against children,” said Irani.
The CJI, at a recent event where Irani was also present, said courts faced difficulty in dealing with “romantic cases” of sexual acts between consenting adolescents.
