By Kawanpreet Kaur 

The Supreme Court observed that people are not aware that the age of consent for having sex has been raised from 16 to 18 while rejecting Madhya Pradesh government’s appeal against acquittal of an accused in a case under POCSO Act.  

With the enforcement of the POCSO Act in 2012, the age of consent was increased to 18 and subsequent amendments were also made to IPC. In 2022, various Supreme Court judges recognised the issue with the current age of consent in the country and stated that the problem must be taken into consideration by the legislature. Further, last year the Madhya Pradesh High Court had urged the Central government to reduce the age of consent to 16 to redress the injustice going on with adolescent boys who enter into consensual sexual relationships. However, the 22^nd Law Commission last year stated that the age of consent should remain unchanged and instead proposed amendments to the Act to address situations where there was an approval, even though not explicit consent in the eyes of law, from children aged between 16 to 18 years who are in intimate relationships. The Commission noted that such cases should not be treated with the same severity as other offences under the Act.  (State of Madhya Pradesh v Raj @ Hem Singh Dhakad SLP(Crl) 19821/2024)   

Click here to read/download the order.