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The Supreme Court connected Wednesday (September 24, 2025) acceptable November 12 to perceive the contented implicit the statutory property of consent for adolescents, saying it would alternatively perceive it successful "continuity" than a "piecemeal" manner.
The substance came up for proceeding earlier a Bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N.V. Anjaria.
"We would similar if the substance starts and continues alternatively than having it successful piecemeal," the Bench said. The Bench fixed the substance connected November 12, saying it would person continuous days of hearing.
The Centre has defended the statutory property of consent of 18 years, saying the determination was a "deliberate, well-considered, and coherent" argumentation prime aimed astatine shielding minors from intersexual exploitation.
The Centre, successful its written submissions done Additional Solicitor General Aishwaraya Bhati, argued that diluting the property of consent oregon introducing exceptions nether the guise of teen romance would beryllium not lone legally unsound but besides dangerous.
Senior Advocate Indira Jaising, assisting the Supreme Court arsenic an amicus curiae, has urged the Supreme Court to work down the statutory property of consent from 18 to 16 years.
Advocate Jaising filed her written submissions challenging the broad criminalisation of intersexual enactment involving adolescents aged 16 to 18 nether the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012 and Section 375 of the IPC.
On Wednesdsay (September 24), Advocate Jaising referred to a concern successful which a person, aged betwixt 16 and 18, gets progressive successful a consensual narration and is prosecuted.
She said successful "Nipun Saxena and others v. Union of India and others" the Supreme Court decided connected abstracted issues.
She said the Nipun Saxena lawsuit and a abstracted suo motu lawsuit connected the appraisal of the transgression justness strategy successful effect to intersexual offences were listed for proceeding unneurotic earlier the Bench.
"We volition woody with it arsenic a whole. We volition not segregate the issues. Let it unfastened up, past we volition see," the Bench said.
The Supreme Court was besides informed astir the involution applications successful the matter. "Can we halt lawyers from filing applications?" the Bench asked, asserting it was the Supreme Court's discretion whether oregon not to entertain.
Explained | Should the property of consent beryllium changed for adolescents?
The Centre has said the existing statutory property of consent indispensable beryllium strictly and uniformly enforced.
"Any departure from this standard, adjacent successful the sanction of betterment oregon teen autonomy, would magnitude to rolling backmost decades of advancement successful kid extortion law, and undermine the deterrent quality of statutes similar the POCSO (the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act, 2012 and the BNS (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita)," it said.
The Centre further argued that the discretion connected case-to-case ground indispensable stay judicial and indispensable not beryllium work into the statute arsenic a wide objection oregon a diluted standard.
"Introducing a legislative close-in-age objection oregon reducing the property of consent would irrevocably dilute the statutory presumption of vulnerability that lies astatine the bosom of kid extortion law. A diluted instrumentality risks opening the floodgates to trafficking and different forms of kid maltreatment nether the garb of consent," it said.
The existing property of consent ought to beryllium retained successful bid to springiness afloat effect to the legislative intent, support the bodily integrity of children, and uphold the law and statutory safeguards accorded to them, it said.
