look news india
News India Live, Digital Desk: The country’s largest court, the Supreme Court, has expressed deep concern over the misuse of the POCSO Act, a strict law protecting children from sexual crimes. The Court has clearly stated that this law was made to protect children from sexual predators, and not to criminalize teenagers who are in consensual romantic relationships.
What was the whole matter, on which the court made this comment?
The Supreme Court was hearing a similar case, where a minor boy and a girl had a consensual relationship. Later the girl became pregnant and her family filed a case against the boy under the POCSO Act, after which the boy was jailed. During the hearing on the bail plea of the boy in this case, the court made this important comment.
The law is being misused
Justice Abhay S. The bench of Justice Oka and Justice Ujjwal Bhuiyan said that there is a flood of such cases in the country, where two teenagers enter into a relationship of their own free will, but later when the relationship deteriorates or the family members come to know about it, then this law is used as a weapon against the boy.
The court said, “The purpose of this law was to protect children from sexual exploitation. But it is being used to criminalize love relationships between teenagers. This is ruining the future of minor boys and labeling them as criminals.”
Parliament should pay attention to this
The court also said that it is the job of the Parliament to change or amend the law, but in view of the way this law is being misused, the legislature (Parliament) should seriously consider the matter. The court said that they cannot change the law on their own, but they can draw the attention of the government towards this serious problem.
In this case, the court granted bail to the accused boy keeping in mind that there was consensual relationship between the boy and the girl.
This comment of the Supreme Court is a big signal for thousands of cases where the relationships between teenagers get entangled in legal complications, affecting their entire lives.