JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, INDIA VOL. 21, 2022 its inherent authority under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code,50 which states that it has the authority to prevent abuse of the process of any Court or otherwise to secure the ends of justice.51 There have been several such cases before the Special POCSO courts known as ‘romantic cases’ or ‘Romeo Juliet cases’, or ‘teen romance cases’. A study of 1,715 “romantic” cases under the POCSO Act determined between 2016 and 2020 by Special Courts in Assam, Maharashtra, and West Bengal were examined by Enfold Proactive Health Trust, and it was discovered that these instances made up 24.3 per cent of all cases decided by the courts.52 The study further reveals that: • 80.2 per cent of the complainants were the girls’ parents and relatives. After the female went “missing”, eloped with her lover, or a pregnancy was discovered, they went to the police. • Only 46.5 per cent of the cases involved the victim and the accused being married to one another. • The females said that the relationships were consensual in 85.5 per cent of the situations.53 9. Judicial Response to Victimisation of Adolescents Is a child of 17 years of age, a criminal, deserving rigorous imprisonment because he had consensual sexual relations with another 17-year-old? This is an outdated moral viewpoint being imposed on children. Several High Courts have taken proactive stand on cases where adolescents are being victimised. They have recognised the normalcy of these relationships and the futility of prosecuting ‘romantic cases’, owing to the consensual nature of the relationships as well as the harmful impact of continued prosecution on both parties. The High Courts have observed that the cases of mutual consent and teenage attraction are not an uncommon occurrence at an adolescent age, and, therefore, the age of consent should 50 51 52 53 62 Section 482 in The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – Nothing in this Code shall be deemed to limit or affect the inherent powers of the High Court to make such orders as may be necessary to give effect to any order under this Code, or to prevent abuse of the process of any Court or otherwise to secure the ends of justice. Swagata Raha, Shruthi Ramakrishnan, “Changing the age of consent,” The Hindu, September 05, 2022. Swagata Raha, Shruthi Ramakrishnan, “Changing the age of consent,” The Hindu, September 05, 2022 Swagata Raha, Shruthi Ramakrishnan, “Changing the age of consent,” The Hindu, September 05, 2022