CJI DY Chandrachud pitches for relook at ‘age of consent’ under Pocso Act | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Raising concern over the culture of silence surrounding child sexual abuse, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said on Saturday that the state must encourage families to report abuse even in cases in which the perpetrator is a family member.
Speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day national programme on implementation of the Pocso Act 2012, the CJI also urged the legislature to take into consideration the growing concern around the ‘age of consent’ under the Act.
The CJI pointed out that it is an unfortunate fact that the manner in which the criminal justice system functions sometimes compounds victims’ trauma. “The executive must therefore join hands with the judiciary to prevent this from happening,” he said.
Speaking at the programme, women and child development minister Smriti Irani brought focus on the need to expedite the trial process and the delivery of compensation to the survivors. To drive home her point, she highlighted data to say that the average time taken to dispose of a Pocso case is 509 days. The minister sought suggestions from judges on what could be done infrastructurally to expedite solutions for children.
“For every conviction, there are three acquittals and 56% of all the Pocso cases correspond to offences of penetrative sexual assault. Aggravated penetrative assault accounts for 25.59% of the cases. Which means that today we have a mechanism that still needs a robust intervention,” she said citing data.
CJI Chandrachud also highlighted that the long-lasting implications of child sexual abuse make it imperative for the state and other stakeholders to create awareness regarding the prevention of child sexual abuse and its timely recognition and the remedy available in law. “Above all, there is an urgent need to ensure that the so-called honour of the family is not prioritised above the best interest of the child,” he asserted.
The CJI said the families of victims are immensely hesitant to file a complaint with the police so one must be very careful about entrusting excessive powers to the police. The slow pace of the criminal justice system is undoubtedly one of the reasons for this but other factors also play a significant role in this. “Issues concerning sexual abuse of children continue to be plagued by immense stigma. There exists a culture of silence which stems from shame and conceptions of family honour,” he said. Therefore, the problem of sexual abuse of children remains a hidden problem.
The CJI also urged the legislature to take into consideration the growing concern around age of consent under the Pocso Act. “You are aware that the Pocso Act criminalises all sexual acts among those under 18 regardless of whether consent is present factually among the minors, because the presumption of the law is that there is no consent among those below the age of 18,” he said.
“In my time as a judge, I have observed that this category of cases poses difficult questions for judges across the spectrum. There is a growing concern surrounding the issue which must be considered by the legislature in view of reliable research by experts in adolescent healthcare,” he said.