[India Today]
A Delhi court has said that if a man has consensual sex with a minor girl, he can't be booked under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The observations were made as the court set free a 22-year-old man from West Bengal accused of abducting and raping a 15-year-old girl whom he later married.
The court said that according to evidence, the two got married voluntarily with consent and no case was made out for kidnapping and inducing woman to compel her marriage.
"I'm afraid if that interpretation is allowed, it would mean that the human body of every individual under 18 years is the property of the state and no individual below 18 years can be allowed to have pleasures associated with one's body," the court said, said a report in The Times of India on Monday.
The judge quashed a plea by police and Delhi Commission for Women that the act prohibited minor girls from having sex. He also asked the authorities to spread awareness on unsafe sex and early marriage.
"In my opinion, it would neither serve the object of present enactment nor the purpose of criminal laws to hold the accused guilty on the ground that he had sexual intercourse with the girl below 18 years," the court said.
It also said it would not be good for the girl if her husband was jailed.
In March, the girl's mother has filed a police complaint that her daughter was missing. A day later, the accused was arrested and the girl rescued.
But later, she told a magistrate that said she had willingly gone with the youth to Kolkata where they got married in a temple. The girl's mother too accepted the marriage.
