The birth of a baby girl following a sexual intercourse between two minors in Kerala has thrown up unprecedented legal and ethical challenges and cases have been registered against both the father and the mother of the child for rape and sexual molestation.
The Kerala Police had initially registered a case against the boy, aged 12, for rape as defined in the Indian Penal Code and under the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act). Later, the girl, aged 17, too was booked under Sections 7 and 8 of the Act, which deals with sexual assault.
The uniqueness of the case is that the perpetrator in one case would become the victim in the second case and vice versa. As the POCSO Act is silent on such a possibility, the investigators are leaving it to the judicial wisdom to decide the culpability of the children. The case now involves essentially the interests of three children, the young father, the mother and their daughter.
The genetic profiling of the boy and the baby had confirmed that the boy was her biological father. With the DNA report conforming the paternity, charges would soon be issued to both the children in the case, investigators said.
The Hindu had on Thursday broke the exclusive story on the boy becoming perhaps the youngest father in the country.
As the boy, who fathered the child is accused of rape, is also a minor, his interests as a child should also be protected. It would now be left to the court to decide on who instigated the sexual offence and who is culpable for the same, an investigator said.
Shobha Koshy, chairperson of the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, felt that the rights of all the three involved in the case need to be protected. The Commission cannot be judgmental in the case and rush into any action as both the perpetrator and the victim are children, she said. The Act doesn’t make any distinction between girl and boy and defines child as “any person below the age of eighteen years.” It is up to the police to decide on who is the perpetrator and the victim in the case, she said.
Since a sexual offence involving children has been reported, POCSO needs to be applied.
