ANOOP Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Court is witnessing an alarming rise in the number of sexual offences being committed on school children. In many cases, the perpetrators of the crime are either students or persons young in age, and the alleged crime-a result of relationships that went beyond platonic love.

(2.) Young children, irrespective of gender, indulge in such acts, unmindful of the drastic consequences that await them. The amendments brought into the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and the enactment of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, envisage very harsh consequences for such offensive acts. Unfortunately, the statute does not distinguish between the conservative concept of the term rape and the sexual interactions arising out of pure affection and biological changes. The statutes do not contemplate the biological inquisitiveness of adolescence and treat all 'intrusions' on bodily autonomy, whether by consent or otherwise, as rape for certain age group of victims.

(3.) Unmindful of the consequences, teenagers and adolescents indulge in sexual relationships. By the time they realise the consequences, it would be too late in the day. A meaningful life could practically be snuffed out by an immature or negligent act arising out of human curiosity or biological cravings, which Psychologists regard as natural. However, the statutory diktat, on the scope and purport of the terms sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault and penetrative sexual assault apart from minimum punishments are most often, unknown to the students and youths.