Nineteen-year-old Chandrashekhar—the son of a watchman—falls in love with 17-year-old Jabili, who hails from an affluent background. The economic chasm between the two families unsurprisingly attracts disapproval from the girl’s family. It reads like a familiar premise for a typical Bollywood masala flick. It is indeed a film—a Telugu directorial by Ram Jagadeesh—but with a significant difference.
The love between the two youngsters does not unfold into a family drama but instead ends up in a court trial, highlighting how the law can be misused to jeopardise the life prospects of innocent youngsters who are very much within their rights to explore and experience love and relationships. Unlike honour killings, which defy the law, this movie shows how conveniently the law itself can become a potent instrument to protect a misplaced sense of honour at the drop of a hat.
In this case, the The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act is in focus. Enacted in 2012, POCSO was aimed at curbing child sexual abuse by increasing penalties for sexual offences against children and by creating a sensitive criminal justice system to support child victims. The enactment was seen as the culmination of years of campaigning for dedicated domestic legislation on child sexual abuse.
Real-time Cases
Now, consider this: Raj Sonkar meets a 16-year-old girl. As claimed by Sonkar’s lawyer, the boy and the girl fell in love and entered into a consensual romantic relationship. However, Sonkar was charged under Sections 137(2), 87, 65(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 3/4(2) of the POCSO Act.
But this is not the script of a film it happened in Uttar Pradesh a few months ago. The Allahabad High Court, while granting bail to the accused, made observations that reveal how the law that was meant to protect children and adolescents from sexual abuse has become a handy tool for parents who disapprove of their daughter’s relationship and want to punish her male partner. In this case, the FIR was delayed by 15 days without any explanation. There was no medical corroboration of the alleged sexual assault.
The court, while granting bail to Sonkar, observed that the POCSO Act, originally intended to protect minors from sexual exploitation, is increasingly being misused to target consensual adolescent relationships. It noted that each case must be considered on its own merits and warned that ignoring the victim's statement in such cases could lead to a miscarriage of justice.
In a recent landmark judgment, the Supreme Court ruled out a jail term for a man convicted under the POCSO Act, noting that the victim did not view the incident as a crime and had suffered more from the legal and social aftermath than the act itself. Citing its powers under Article 142, the court emphasised that the trauma stemmed from the legal process, not the incident.
Misuse of POCSO Act
Various courts across the country have repeatedly highlighted the misuse of the POCSO Act. In August 2024, the Delhi High Court, while granting bail to an accused in a POCSO case, made remarks regarding the misapplication of the Act. This was a case in which a young man had been in jail for three years, charged under various sections of the IPC and Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the POCSO Act. At the time of the incident, the girl was 17 years old, while the boy was 21. The girl had willingly gone with the boy, married him, and later became pregnant through consensual sexual intercourse. In her statements to doctors and police, she confirmed the consensual nature of the relationship. It was only in her statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C. that she alleged the accused had taken her to a room and committed rape.
While granting bail to the accused, the court observed: The statement given by the prosecutrix before the doctors—that her mother knew about her relationship with the petitioner and that the FIR was lodged only because the petitioner refused to change his religion—indicates that the FIR was filed at the behest of the parents, who disapproved of the relationship.
A 2022 report by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy makes a very pertinent point—that the age of consent in India is closely intertwined with the law surrounding child marriages. Until 2012, the age of consent under Section 375 of the IPC was 16 years. By defining a child as ‘any person below the age of eighteen years,’ the POCSO Act made any sexual activity involving a minor an offence. However, this provision conflicted with the IPC, 1860, which pegged the age of consent at 16 years.
This inconsistency was resolved with the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, which raised the age of consent from 16 to 18 years. This meant that any sexual activity involving individuals below the age of 18—regardless of consent—would amount to statutory rape under Section 375 of the IPC.
A report noted this change has led to one of the most controversial aspects of the POCSO Act, as it criminalises consensual teenage relationships. The Bombay High Court, in Arhant Janardan Sunatkari v. State of Maharashtra, also pointed out that such cases remain a legal grey area since a minor's consent is not legally valid.
Rising Concerns Over POCSO Misuse
The same report highlights an important statistic, various studies suggest that many POCSO cases pertain to consenting minors. For instance, a study conducted in Delhi found that 28% of the complaints reported between January 2013 and September 2015 involved individuals between the ages of 16 and 18. In 90% of these cases, the girl failed to testify against her partner, resulting in acquittal.
The persistent misuse of POCSO provisions has prompted the Supreme Court to urge the Central Government to develop a national sex education policy and conduct a comprehensive review of cases and data related to the Act. This misuse has also reignited the debate over whether India should lower the age of consent. However, the Law Commission has advised against reducing the age from 18 to 16, arguing that such a move would negatively impact the fight against child marriage and child trafficking.
While no one is calling for a hurried change in the law, the misuse of the POCSO Act—now even being depicted in popular media like cinema—makes a valid case for serious deliberation on finding a middle path. One that ensures the protection of child rights while also minimising the misuse of the law.
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