‘Injustice to boys’: Madhya Pradesh HC asks Centre to reduce women’s consent age to 16

A 2012 amendment that increased the age of consent from 16 to 18 has “disturbed the fabric of society, the HC said

The Madhya Pradesh high court has urged the central government to consider reducing the age of consent from 18 to 16 to avoid the “injustice” of adolescent boys being treated as criminals, an observation it made while scrapping an FIR against a 20-year-old man accused of rape.

‘Injustice to boys’: Madhya Pradesh HC asks Centre to reduce women’s consent age to 16

A 2012 amendment that increased the age of consent from 16 to 18 has “disturbed the fabric of society”, said a single-judge bench of justice Deepak Kumar Agarwal.

“Nowadays, every male or female near the age of 14 years, due to social media awareness and easily accessible internet connectivity, is getting puberty at an early age,” the judge said. “Boys and girls are getting attracted to each other owing to this early puberty,” he said, ultimately “resulting in consensual physical relationships.”

“In these cases, male persons are not at all criminal. It is only a matter of age when they come into contact with female and develop physical relationships,” he said.

The observations came as the court quashed an FIR against the 20-year-old man, who a 16-year-old girl accused of raping her repeatedly for six months and impregnating her in April 2020.

In the judgment, released on Thursday, Agrawal said, “As per the prosecution story, she was a minor at the time of incident. This court, looking into the physical and mental development of an adolescent of that age group, would consider it logical that such a person is capable of making a conscious decision as regards his or her well-being.

“Prima facie, it appears that there is no mens rea (wrong intentions) involved.

The court said, “The government should think over the matter for reducing the age of prosecutrix from 18 to 16 years as earlier, before amendments, so that injustice should be redressed.”