Protection Or Punishment? Rethinking Gender Justice In Judicial Readings Of The POCSO Act
- IJLLR Journal
- 10 minutes ago
- 1 min read
Gurudutt, SRF, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi
ABSTRACT
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO) was enacted as a comprehensive child-protection statute aimed at addressingsexual exploitation through stringent criminal sanctions. While the Act embodies a strong protective ethos, its uniform age-of-consent framework and mandatory penal consequences have generated complex interpretive challenges for Indian courts, particularly in cases involving consensual adolescent relationships and child marriages. This article critically examines the judicial application of POCSO through the lens of gender justice, focusing on the tension between safeguarding minors and recognising adolescents’ evolving capacities, autonomy, and dignity. Drawing on a doctrinal analysis of Supreme Court and High Court decisions, the study maps divergent judicial approaches to consensual “teenage love” cases, ranging from purposive and equity-oriented interpretations that grant relief through quashing or bail, to strict textualist positions that insist on unwavering statutory compliance following the black letters of the law. The article argues that while POCSO’s gender-neutral design seeks to protect all children, its application often produces gendered outcomes by negating young women’s expressed consent and disproportionately criminalising young men. Situating these judicial trends within broader constitutional values and international child-rights norms, the article contends that the absence of close-in-age exemptions and guided sentencing discretion undermines substantive gender justice. It concludes by advocating a rights-based recalibration of POCSO through legislative amendments and principled judicial reasoning, grounded in constitutional morality and the doctrine of evolving capacities, to reconcile child protection with fairness, autonomy, and adolescent well-being.
Keywords: POCSO Act, Adolescent Consent, Gender Justice, Age of Consent, Child Protection Law.
