The Delhi High Court has refused bail to a man who was charged with raping a minor girl repeatedly, saying that friendship does not give anyone the right to indulge in sexual relations without consent.
The accused, who was under arrest on counts of the Indian Penal Code 376 (rape), 354D (stalking), 506 (criminal intimidation) and sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, had filed for bail stating that the girl was consenting and of majority age.
But Delhi Police opposed the plea on the grounds that the charges were grave. During his judgment, Justice Girish Kathpalia rejected the accused’s arguments and pointed out that the victim was a child, which rendered any consent invalid under the law. “Moreover, even the consent itself would not be legal in the given case since the prosecutrix was a child, as clearly mentioned by the prosecutrix in the FIR as well as during her testimony. the accused/applicant repeatedly engaged in sexual intercourse with her in spite of her protests,” the judge noted on Thursday.
Justice Kathpalia also went on to explain that merely being friends with someone does not mean a person has the right to have sexual relations without consent. He said, “Merely because a girl befriends a boy, the latter cannot be given liberty to indulge in sexual intercourse with her without her consent.”
The ruling was immediately after the central government informed the Supreme Court that it opposed reducing the age of consent in the POCSO Act or granting exceptions for teen couples. In the written arguments pertaining to advocate Nipun Saxena’s public interest litigation, the government contended that any such ‘dilution, even in the name of reform or adolescent autonomy’, would dilute legal safeguards for children and may lead to a rise in cases of child abuse.
It emphasized that the legal age of consent 18 years must be ‘strictly and uniformly enforced’ to maintain the integrity of child safety laws and ensure the welfare of children.
