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Synopsis

The Madras High Court has directed the Director General of Police to identify cases involving consensual relationships from among the 1274 pending cases for the period from 2010 to 2013 where both the victim girl and accused boy are below the age of 18 years. 

"...it has to be ascertained as to how many cases fall under the category of consensual relationship. If those cases are segregated from the pending cases, it will be easy for this Court to deal with them and in appropriate cases, this Court can also exercise its jurisdiction and quash the proceedings if the proceedings are ultimately going to be against the interest and future of the children involved in those cases and it is found to be an abuse of process of Court/abuse of process of law," held the court. 

A bench of Justice N Anand Venkatesh and Justice Sunder Mohan passed the order to ensure that in cases of consensual relationships, where the boy and girl are "children" in the eye of law, they do not get treated as 'victim' and 'child in conflict with law' and face harassment. 

The same exercise shall be done by the Director General of Police, Puducherry from out of 29 pending cases placed before the court, the high court directed. 

Moreover, while taking note of the fact that in cases involving minors, sometimes, the victim girl is mechanically detained in a home when it is not warranted and the child in conflict with law is sent to the Juvenile Home mechanically, court directed that the Child Welfare Committee and the Juvenile Justice Boards must be sensitized.

"The sensitization programs must be conducted by the Legal Services Authority and the State Judicial Academy," ordered the court. 

Further, court also issued directions pertaining to medical examination and reporting of sexual violence cases. Court said that the Two-Finger Test and the Archaic Potency Test must be discontinued. 

For the purpose, court directed the Director General of Police to instruct the Inspector General of Police of various Zones to collect a data by going through the medical reports prepared in all cases starting from 01.01.2023, involving sexual offence and see if any report given makes reference to the Two-Finger Test.

"If any such report is identified, it shall be collected and shall be brought to the notice of this Court. On receipt of the same, we will pass further orders," held the court. 

Apart from that, court directed the respondent authorities to come up with a standard operating procedure for conducting Potency Test by merely collecting the blood sample.

The matter will be next heard on August 11, 2023.