Romeo and Juliet Act: To address the legal implications of consensual sexual relations between minors

Who should we blame, an underage boy or girl if they have consensual sex? When parents of such children come to know about such activities, they simply blame a man and file a rape case against him. Many cases are the result of angry and disappointed parents. Since having sex with a minor, even with consent, is rape, they are labeled as rapists and are liable to the punishment.

Once they are labeled as sex offenders, they will never be able to survive in peace again.

In addition, their education, career and social life would suffer, even if they had no intention of being sexually exploited.

Romeo and Juliet law

According to the National Penal (Code) Act of 2017, consent can be communicated orally, in writing or through gestures or behavior. It specifies that the age of consent in Nepal is 18 years, and that consent given by a minor is not considered, anyone having a physical relationship with the minor despite their consent is considered rape.

This provision is there to protect girls from rape, it is believed that they do not have enough knowledge about it and they can be easily manipulated. But while protecting minor girls, the law is unfair to the minor boy or the one who has just reached the age of majority, they are labeled as rapist because they have sex with consent without any wrong intentions towards their girl.

When two minors or couples close in age, where one of them has reached the age of majority, fall in love and become physically intimate with each other, these men are reported as rapists by the girl’s parents. Innocent young boys are made to suffer injustice.

One of the ways to protect young men from being registered as rapists when they have consensual sex in love is to introduce the Romeo and Juliet law or the law about persons who are close in age.

It protects a teenager from being registered as a rapist; it tries to protect the rights of both men and women if there is no wrong intention regarding the sexual relationship.

The Romeo and Juliet Act is a statutory provision that provides an exception to statutory rape laws in cases where the two participants are close in age or underage and the sexual activity is consensual. The Romeo and Juliet Act is an exceptional clause that provides a certain level of protection to statutory rape offenders when the young person has consented to sexual intercourse and the age difference between the minor and the alleged offender is small.

This law does not allow people to have physical relations with minors, but it does try to protect people from the sex offender registry. It prevents serious criminal charges against teenagers who engage in normal, consensual sexual behavior and who are close in age.

This law exists in over 30 states and is intended to prevent the criminalization of consensual sexual acts between young people of a similar age (the age difference can vary by state). However, most states use an age difference of about 3 years.

But there is also an age limit for minors. In these cases, a minor must be at least 14 years old (this varies by state), but in most cases a minor must be at least 13 years old to give consent.

Amendment of laws according to the law of Romeo and Juliet

The state must protect the children, while we protect women from sexual abuse, we must not neglect the future of the male child when they had a physical relationship in love with consent. The state cannot be unfair to the young men.

The implementation of Romeo-Juliet law or close-in-age law and the amendment of the law according to Romeo-Juliet law or close-in-age law has become very important in Nepal. Many innocent people are being criminalized just because of this loophole.

When a 15-year-old girl and a 17-18-year-old boy enter into an intimate relationship, it is different from when an adult exploits a child. Also, the label criminal or, for example, sex offender would affect a person’s entire life; neither his education nor his social life would be good with this label.

When the girl’s parents find out about the relationship between them, they rush to blame the man without understanding the real things. The result of the angry parents is that they ruin the future of another respondent or a man. They also need to be protected.

Vijaylaxmi and Anr v/s State Rep.: Facts of the case: A girl and a boy ran away from their families to get married when a girl was a minor. When the family found them, they filed a rape case. But later the case was withdrawn as the parties did not want to continue the legal proceedings. After all, both the respondents had run away from their families to get married and later the parents had consented to the marriage as it was not a case of rape.

Consent and love between them were considered and the case was withdrawn. Sexual relationship between two minors is not considered rape. The exemption to withdraw the rape case, understanding the situation is a very big achievement in the current situation, withdrawal of this case saved a boy from the label of sex offender.

Santosh Kumar Yadav v/s Nepal Government has set a precedent that physical relations after child marriage cannot be considered as rape. They are already married and have consented to the relationship which cannot be considered as rape. Similarly, consensual sexual relationship cannot be labialized as statutory rape. This practice would protect the future of the young accused who had no ill intentions regarding physical relationship.

The amendment of the laws in force has become very necessary to close the loopholes in the law. It is very necessary to understand that consensual sex between partners who are minors is not the same as sexual exploitation of adults.

This law would protect both the child and the teenager from being registered as a sex offender. It would also reduce the burden on the judicial system.