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Synopsis

In a young man's appeal against conviction under the POCSO Act, the Calcutta High Court noted the challenge parents face in providing the right upbringing to adolescents owing to the influence of negative online content.

To tackle the issue, a division bench of Justices Chitta Ranjan Dash and Partha Sarathi Sen released a set of guidelines for adolescent boys and girls. Especially, regarding the girls, the court said that it is every female adolescent's "duty/obligation" to control sexual urges.

Court reasoned that she needs to restrain herself as in the eyes of society, she is the loser when she gives in to enjoy the sexual pleasure of hardly two minutes.

Every female adolescent should protect the integrity of her body, her dignity, and self-worth and she should strive for the overall development of herself transcending gender barriers, court added. 

On the other hand, regarding male adolescents, court said that their duty is to respect the aforesaid duties of young girls. 

"...and he should train his mind to respect a woman, her self-worth, her dignity & privacy, and right to autonomy of her body," court said. 

While dealing with the issue of decriminalising consensual sexual acts involving adolescents above 16 years, at the outset, court advocated for introduction of comprehensive sexual education, emphasizing the need for all children and adolescents to receive rights-based comprehensive sexual education. 

However, it added that the practicality of the facts is that a “rights-based approach” as a panacea for all the problems that come is neither the solution, nor the just and correct approach.

More importantly, court emphasised that the 'Rights' of an individual, be it the Fundamental Rights in the Constitution and various other Rights in different statutes, are not conferred but are earned by action.

"If we look at Bentham’s theory, it is found that every right has corresponding duty/duties or obligation/obligations. By performing the obligation, you have to earn the Right/Rights. It is somewhat similar to the old oriental philosophy 'Do your duty and earn your Right'," court asserted. 

Further, while discussing the science behind the sex urge in humans, court said that sex in adolescents is normal but sexual urge or arousal of such urge is dependent on some action by the individual, may be a man or woman.

"Therefore, sexual urge is not at all normal and normative. If we stop some action(s), arousal of sexual urge, as advocated in our discussion supra, ceases to be normal," it said. 

Regarding the case at hand, court noted that the girl herself, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, had submitted that she was in a relationship with the accused and out of her own volition she had married him. The couple also had a child now. 

While holding the case at hand to be a case of non-exploitative consensual sexual relationship between two consenting adolescents, court set aside the conviction of the accused young man. 

In a detailed judgment, court, while underscoring the unintended consequence of the POCSO Act, also called for a balanced approach between protecting children and avoiding the criminalization of consensual acts among adolescents above 16 years.

Case Title: Probhat Purkait @ Provat vs State of West Bengal