The Supreme Court has sought response from the Tamil Nadu government on a plea filed by a children’s rights organisation challenging the notification issued by the Director General of Police directing the investigating officers of POCSO cases to not show haste in effecting arrest of the accused in mutual romantic cases between adolescents.

A bench comprising CJI D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued notices to the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and the state of Tamil Nadu on the public interest litigation filed by the NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA).

The petition said that issuance of such notifications or circulars creates ambiguities and superficial impunities while dealing with such cases of sexual abuse of victims aged between 16 and 18 years.

The plea claimed that various NGOs, governments and law enforcement authorities have relied on flawed methodologies that 60-70 per cent of cases registered under POCSO (Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences Act) pertains to consenting minors and fall under the category of “Consensual Romantic Relationship” between teenagers.

On the contrary, the petitioner alleged that this figure of 60-70 per cent is incorrect since the total number of cases between 16 and 18 years are approximately 30 per cent of the total POCSO cases in the country.

Child rights activist and former national secretary of BBA, Bhuwan Ribhu, said that it is expected that the top court will lay the guidelines for dealing with cases where a child victim of sexual abuse turns hostile due to coercion, pressure and is incorrectly deemed to be a case of consent.

(The story has been published via a syndicated feed.)