SC agrees to hear plea of NGO challenging reduction of age of consent
Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea by an NGO against any reduction in the age of consent, saying it jeopardises the interest of a large number of child victims of sexual abuse, especially girls.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra issued notice to the Centre and tagged the plea of 'Bachpan Bachao Andolan' with a pending petition filed by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).
The NCPCR had challenged last year's order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which said that a minor Muslim girl can marry a person of her choice.
The apex court on Friday sought the Centre's response on the issue.
The plea of NGO, besides seeking a slew of directions and guidelines, has also sought a directive to the courts to refrain from making observations regarding the minor victim's casual relationship and promiscuous attitude while dealing with the criminal proceedings under the POCSO Act.
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It has said that the dissemination of misinterpreted information pertaining to POCSO cases (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012) as «elopement and romantic relationships» has undermined the spirit and purpose of the stringent legislation.
It also challenged the circular issued on December 3, 2022 by the office of the Director General of Police, Tamil Nadu directing the police officials to not show haste in effecting an arrest of the accused in mutual romantic cases, alleging thereby most of them fell category of «mutual romantic relationships».
The NGO also highlighted that despite official facts and figures, various NGOs, governments,
