The POCSO-Adolescent Autonomy Dilemma: Criminalising Consensual Relationships and the Case for a Close-in-Age Exception

The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 fixed the age of consent at eighteen and, in doing so, rendered every act of sexual intimacy involving an adolescent a serious criminal offence, whatever the wishes of the parties. A growing body of empirical work shows that a substantial share of prosecutions under the Act arise not from abuse but from consensual relationships between adolescents or between an adolescent and a young adult, typically set in motion by disapproving parents. Constitutional courts have responded with quashing orders, anguished obiter and appeals to Parliament, while the Law Commission of India has recommended sentencing discretion but declined structural change. This paper examines the resulting dilemma between child protection and adolescent autonomy. It argues that the blanket criminalisation of peer intimacy is overinclusive, disproportionate and inconsistent with the constitutional guarantees of autonomy, dignity and equal treatment, as well as with India’s obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Drawing on Canadian, British, German and American models, it proposes a narrowly drawn close-in-age exception, with safeguards against exploitation, as the legislative cure that judicial improvisation cannot supply.