Formulated for protecting children from sexual exploitation, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was never meant to criminalise consensual romantic relationship between adolescents, observed the Allahabad High Court, while granting bail to a person accused of enticing away a 15-year-old girl.
The observations were recently made by a Single Bench of Justice Krishan Pahal who maintained that nowadays, more often than not, the POCSO Act had become a tool for exploitation of children under the age of 18.
“The fact of consensual relationship borne out of love should be of consideration while granting bail because it would amount to perversity of justice if the statement of victim was ignored and the accused was left to suffer behind jail,” the court noted, while granting bail to the accused who has been in jail since May 2023.
The accused was booked by the Jalaun police under Sections 363, 366 of the IPC and 7/8 of the POCSO Act for allegedly enticing away a 15-year-old girl. The FIR noted that the victim also took away the jewellery of her sister-in-law along with ₹10,000 cash, from the house.
‘Falsely implicated’
The counsel argued that the applicant is innocent and has been falsely implicated with a view to causing unnecessary harassment and to victimise him. He also submitted that as per the school leaving certificate of the girl, her date of birth is July 10, 2008, as such, it falls just two months less than 15 years.
“She looks much older than her age mentioned in the school certificate and it is simply a school leaving certificate from a local school and cannot be taken into consideration. No ossification test has been conducted. Also, there is no criminal history of the applicant who is languishing in jail since May,” the counsel had submitted.
The government counsel vehemently opposed the bail application but has not disputed the fact that there is no criminal history of the applicant.
