The Calcutta High Court issued a list of recommendations which talked about protecting dignity and self-worth and control sexual urges to young boys and girls while hearing the appeal of a young boy who was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment for engaging in sexual activities with his partner, who was a minor.

The division bench of Justice Chitta Ranjan Dash and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen, while acquitting the young boy recognised that POCSO Act does not account for consensual, non-exploitative sexual relations between children aged 16-18 years and cited salutary legal principle of Mahabharata “Dharmo Rakshyati Rakshyita” (one who protects law is protected by law).

In laying down certain duties to be followed by adolescent boys and girls, the bench held that, it is the duty/obligation of every female adolescent to:

  1. Protect her right to integrity of her body
  2. Protect her dignity and self-worth
  3. Thrive for overall development of her self-transcending gender barriers.
  4. Control sexual urge/urges as in the eyes of the society she is the looser when she gives in to enjoy the sexual pleasure of hardly two minutes.
  5. Protect her right to autonomy of her body and her privacy.

"It is the duty of a male adolescent to respect the aforesaid duties of a young girl or woman, and he should train his mind to respect a woman, her self-worth, her dignity and privacy, and the right to autonomy of her body," the court further said.

The bench noted 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.”

“We do not want our adolescents to do anything that shall push them from dark to darker side of life. It is normal for each adolescent to seek the company of opposite sex but it is not normal for them to engage in sex devoid of any commitment and dedication. Sex shall come automatically to them when they grow self-reliant, economically independent and a person which they dreamt one day to be,” the court concluded.

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