In India, any sexual contact with person under 18 is classified as rape. But a senior court is now calling for a change in policy, pointing to teen couples who are also impacted by it.
Top members of India's judiciary are calling on the government to reconsider changing the laws on the age of consent and lower it from the current 18 to 16 years.
In November, the High Court in the Indian state of Karnataka urged the Law Commission of India to look into the issue. The Commission is a government-appointed body of experts advising the government on legal reform.
Then, on December 10, the Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud appealed to the parliament to address the "growing concern" around the age of consent for sexual relationships.
"In my time as a judge, I have observed that this category of case poses difficult questions for judges across the spectrum," he said.
However, despite multiple appeals from the judiciary, the Indian government has made it clear that it will not be considering a legal reform.
Last week, the Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani said that a discussion on revisiting the matter "does not rise."
What prompted the appeal from India's judiciary?
In 2017, the parents of a 17-year-old girl in Karnataka filed a rape complaint after their daughter eloped with a boy. When the girl turned 18, she married the accused and the couple now have two children.
The lower court had acquitted her husband of rape charge, but in November this year, the Karnataka High Court heard an appeal which challenged this acquittal.
The two-judge bench observed that they had come across several cases "relating to minor girls above the age of 16 years having fallen in love and eloped and in the meantime, having had sexual intercourse with the boy."
The judges noted that the "consent even by a girl of 16 years and above would have to be considered."
Moreover, the court pointed out that a growing number of cases were being filed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act — which does not acknowledge consensual sex between adolescents under the age of 18.
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