Ningthem Oinam, Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat
ABSTRACT
Age of consent is still a complex standard used to determine an individual’s legal competence to consent to sexual acts. In an attempt by the state to protect women and children from violence, the threshold of age of consent has been raised from 16 to 18 and the law in regard has become more stringent. The state’s path to justice has rather led to certain injustice. Adolescents both minor and adults who engage in sexual activities are at risk of being thrown behind bars due to the rigid law for statutory rape under the Indian penal Code and The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). This paper will assess why such stringent interpretation and articulation of age of sexual consent is inefficient and arbitrary. While doing so, there would be no divergence from the significance of policies to eliminate violence against women and children but would rather focus on how legislations and judicial articulation need to incorporate adolescents’ needs and their perspective to avoid violating their personal liberty and to form better and efficient legal frameworks. Subsequently, the articulation in favour of adolescents would appear much refined and coherent through a strong ethical perspective of the age of consent. This approach would be able to give us vivid and clear understanding on the needs of the adolescent and will pave a way for a reform in the conventional societal outlook.
Keywords: Age of Consent, Sexual Consent, POCSO, Adolescents, Ethics, Morality
