Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday requested the Centre to consider reducing the age of consent from 18 to 16 in rape cases to redress the injustice being caused to adolescent boys.
The bench of Justice Deepak Kumar Agarwal made this appeal to the Central government as it opined that due to social media awareness and easy accessibility to internet connectivity, puberty occurs near the age of 14, resulting in physical relationships between young boys and girls with consent.
"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. Owing to this, female and male children are getting attracted to each other and these attractions are resulting in a physical relationship with consent. In these cases, male persons are not at all criminals. It is only a matter of age when they come into contact with female and develop physical relationships," (sic) the Court said.
The Court further observed that the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, which increased the age of consent for sexual intercourse by a girl to 18 years, has 'disturbed' the fabric of the society.
The bench also stressed that due to the age of consent being 18 years, the boy is treated like a criminal in society causing injustice to adolescent boys.
The court made these observations while hearing a plea to dismiss charges filed against him for rape.
(With inputs from Live Law)