The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu DGP to identify criminal cases against minor boys for having consensual sexual relations with or eloping with minor girls, according to media reports.

The court has reportedly decided to quash such cases if it finds that the process of law is being abused or that the proceedings can put the future of the minors at stake.

The Bench of Justices N Anand Venkatesh and Sunder Mohan observed on July 10th that in most such cases, the girl is by default treated as the victim while the boy is considered a juvenile offender.

The court pointing out that 1,274 cases against minors were pending across the State, said in the order that it must be ascertained 'how many cases fall under the category of consensual relationship'. The Court has now announced that it can quash those proceedings if they go against the interest and future of the children involved.

Demand for a More Sensitive Approach:

The court was hearing a suit of habeas corpus filed in 2022 after a minor girl went missing in the Cuddalore district. It was later found to be a case of elopement. The police filed a closure report before the Juvenile Justice Board and the court quashed the case after noting the report.

The court also decided to discontinue the two-finger test conducted on victims of sexual offence and directed the police to find a standard operating procedure to conduct potency tests on boys through blood samples instead of the archaic semen collection.

The court also called for sensitization programmes to be conducted for the Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) and the Juvenile Justice Board by the Legal Services Authority and the State Judicial Academy because they often lack sensitivity while dealing with such cases.

'What is even more shocking is that both the girl and boy are 'children' in the eye of the law and while the girl was treated as a victim, the boy was treated as a victim, the boy was treated as a child in conflict with the law.'

It must be taken as a wake-up call that at least such incidents don't repeat in the future.

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Reference:

• thefederal.com