Consent of minor is no consent, Delhi HC junks bail plea of rape accused

New Delhi: On denying bail plea of a man accused of raping a 16-year-old girl, Delhi High Court has reiterated that the "consent of a minor is no consent in the eyes of the law".

The accused changed the age of the 16-year-old in Aadhaar card which the court observed as "serious offence".

"It seems that the applicant (man) wanted to take advantage by getting the date of birth on the Aadhaar card changed so that when the applicant established physical relationship with the complainant, she was not a minor.

"The consent of the minor at the age of 16 years, specially, when the applicant was 23 years old and already married also disentitles him for grant of bail. Consent of a minor is no consent in the eyes of law," Justice Jasmeet Singh said in a recent order.

The incident came into light when an FIR on missing case was launched on the complaint of the girl's father in 2019. Later she was traced and rescued from Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal district.

In her statement before the magistrate, the girl said that the man was her boyfriend and she stayed with him for about one and a half months. She further said that the man established physical relationships with her consent and that she wanted to stay with him.

The man sought bail on grounds that he had been in custody since 2019 and the chargesheet filed.

"In the present case, I am of the view that the girl was merely 16 years on the date of incident. The applicant was 23 years old and was already married. It is stated by the counsel appearing for the complainant (girl) that she has interacted with the complainant and the complainant has informed her that it was the applicant who took her to the office of SDM (sub divisional magistrate) and got her date of birth changed in the Aadhaar card from the year 2002 to March 5, 2000 only for the purpose of showing that the date of the establishing physical relationship she was not a minor," The judge observed.

-PTI Inputs