THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY OF ADOLESCENTS IN SEXUAL OFFENCE CASES: DOCTRINAL AND PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF IN RE: RIGHT TO PRIVACY OF ADOLESCENTS (2024 INSC 614) FOR THE BHARATIYA NYAYA SANHITA, 2023 FRAMEWORK

Abstract

In August 2024, a Bench of two judges of the Supreme Court of India found itself facing a decision of the Calcutta High Court that, in effect, had decriminalized an act of sex between a twenty-fiveyear-old man and a fourteen-year-old girl on the basis of judicial constructs of “non-exploitative relationships” and “older adolescents.” Nine months later, in May 2025, the same Bench, faced with the practical effects of its own corrective ruling, used Article 142 of the Constitution to stay sentence despite a wholly unchallenged conviction. When considered together, the two rulings in In Right to Privacy of Adolescents provide both definition of the law with respect to strict liability offenses as well as demonstrate the continuing uncertainties in the legislative field. This paper reviews the legislative landscape as it exists within BNS, 2023 and the BNSS, 2023, and places the resultant constitutional deficiency in context with the privacy law developed in Puttaswamy, as well as Canada’s and the United Kingdom’s close-in-age legislation.